


Time Warp: A Better Relationship

by Ninniacthel



Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Family, Gen, Gray dies in the original timeline, Hurt/Comfort, I hope I'm tagging right, Indominus Rex has a name, Just the first movie, My 14 year old brain was quite different from now, My First Fanfic, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, So it can be kinda cringey, Tagging violence just in case, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Written way before Fallen Kingdom or the upcoming Dominion, Written when I was like 14, eventual family fluff, it's really not too violent, just some punching and mentions of being eaten, that's why Major Character Death tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 31,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29110890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninniacthel/pseuds/Ninniacthel
Summary: Those who have watched Jurassic World knows what happened. But what if Gray had not jumped off the waterfall like Zach told him to? What if Gray was eaten by the Indominus Rex? Follow Zach in his little time travel adventure to save his brother and give his past self another chance.
Relationships: Claire Dearing & Owen Grady, Gray Mitchell & Zach Mitchell
Kudos: 6





	1. Losing a Brother

**Author's Note:**

> An old (as well as my first) fanfic that I wrote and posted on Fanfiction.Net. Now cross-posting here :) The writings of a young teenager who was super hyped about this movie after I saw it in the cinema.
> 
> Originally posted in: 22/6/2015

_"We have to jump!"_

_"I can't!"_

_"Are you ready? One, two, jump!"_

_And they were both falling and falling into the waters away from the Indominus Rex._

_Or so Zach Mitchell thought._

_When he couldn't find his brother in the waters, he desperately kicked up to the surface when he heard a terrible and familiar scream._

_"Zach! Help me!"_

_"GRAY!"_

_Zach watched helplessly as the I-Rex chewed up his brother. Having killed another prey, the Indominus wheeled back into the forest to search for more food and things to kill. Zach was numb, he could not think or move. He just floated in the water as his mind replayed the scene over and over. His brother's screams imprinted into his head as the damn genetically-modified dinosaur crushed Gray's body into nothing._

* * *

"Gray!"

With a jolt, Zach woke from his nightmare. A nightmare that never faded ever since that incident in Jurassic World ten months ago; ever since Gray was eaten by the stupid Indominus. For that, he blamed his aunt. No, it was not her fault since she didn't create that thing but she was somewhat in charge of the park right? She at least gets to decide which and what kind of dinosaur can be placed in the park. But nooo, it just had to be something that is part crocodile, part raptor, part cuttlefish and who knows what other genetic stuff of other random predators bunched into one. Zach remembered that after the incident, he had screamed at his aunt Claire for creating the Indominus, _"What the hell were you thinking?! Why did you create something stupid you can't even control?! Gray's dead and it's all your fault! How am I gonna e-e-explain to mom and dad when they get here?"_

Yes, Zach cares for his little, adorable brother, no matter how silly he can be sometimes. He may have ignored him a lot when Gray tried to get his attention but he really loves him. For the hundredth time, Zach asked himself why did he not spend time with his brother when he had the chance. Now he is gone and will never ever come back. Burying his face in his hands as the waterworks started falling, Zach asked in a choked whisper:

"Why didn't you jump, Gray?"

Not being able to sleep again, Zach got out of bed and reached for his new Samsung phone. There was a new text from his girlfriend, asking him if he was alright and if he was available to another date. Zach did not care for dates anymore, so he simply tossed a careless reply right back. He could not give a damn about whether or not his relationship was stable or shaky. All he kept thinking about now is his little brother and how he'd failed him.

_"Hey, I'm right here and I will protect you."_

Zach snorted and tossed his phone on the bed. He glanced at the family photo on his bedside table, Gray looked so happy and he himself looked extremely content while wrapping his arm around his little bro's shoulders. Oh, how he wished to turn back time and return to those days where they were still together. Sighing, Zach lay back down on his bed while replacing his phone on the table. 'Might as well catch a few more hours of sleep,' he thought as he closed his eyes, hoping that the nightmare will not come back.

And it didn't.

* * *

Zach was heading downstairs when he heard his mom's voice, "...Been getting worse and he's not even responding to his girlfriend anymore."

"Come now, sweetheart, Zach needs more time."

"He's had all the time he needed! Ten months, Scott, ten. And while I do miss my younger son, we have to move on. Claire told me that Zach literally put all the blame on her and she was _crying_. If you think my sister really wanted this to happen—"

"Karen, honey, I know what happened at Jurassic World was a terrible blow to all of us. But think about this from Zach's point of view, he didn't exactly treat Gray right: always ignoring him or brushing him off by giving him random, lame responses. Zach is regretting the time he did not properly spend with his little brother and he is wallowing in depression and guilt. If you were our son, how would _you_ feel?"

There was a sigh from Karen and she said, "I just hope he gets over this, I know it's hard for him but he's got to move on, none of us likes it any better."

"I know, honey, I know."

Zach decided to make his appearance, "Hey, mom, dad,"

Scott Mitchell looked surprised, "Oh, hey, son, we were just about to head off to work. You okay on your own? We've got your breakfast ready too." Zach resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "Yeah, sure, thanks guys. Um, do you guys mind if I skipped school today?" Karen and Scott looked at each other, "Whatever helps you, Zach." Karen sounded sad and resigned.

"Thanks, mom."

With that, the couple headed off to their respective work places and Zach to the kitchen for breakfast.

_Time skip..._

Zach was sprawled out on the couch reading when his phone vibrated. Dropping his book, he reached for the phone to see an unfamiliar number on screen. Turns out that it was a message from Lowery Cruthers, one of Claire's colleague from the park.

_Hi, Zach, the name's Lowery. Y'know, the guy who stayed behind in the operation's room? Yep, that's me. Anyways, will you come and meet me later at the Starbucks nearest your house? We need to talk. It's somewhat related to your, uh, late brother._

Zach stared blankly at the message, he dimly recalled meeting a man who'd stayed behind at the controls to watch over their progress in the park. He had also been the one to open the doors to the T-Rex's enclosure for it to fight the I-Rex. What did he know about Gray? Why is he saying something like this? Curious about what Lowery wanted to say, Zach texted back, agreeing to be at the cafe in a few. 'Just what does he want with me?'


	2. A Tempting Offer, Saving My Bro? Why the Hell Not?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach gets dinosaur-training from Owen then time travels to the past.

Looking around, he saw a table in a small secluded corner where Lowery was sitting with two extra people.

"Um, Mr Cruthers, I thought you were alone?"

All three occupants looked up, "Oh, Zach, welcome. It is complicated and extremely dangerous, not to mention the three of us are actually in this together. Here, we got you some latte." Lowery greeted the nearing-adult teen. Glancing at his aunt and her *ahem* boyfriend, Owen Grady, Zach sat down, took a sip and asked, "Okay, spill. What's the deal?" Claire first took a deep breath and spoke, "Look, Zach, hear me out, please, I really, really didn't mean or even expect something like this to happen. About Gray... I'm really sorry, I know no apologies will ever get you to forgive me, but...at least try to understand."

Looking at his red-headed aunt, Zach noticed she was on the verge of (probably) another breakdown. That's when he realized that Claire was going through the same thing as he is. Not spending time with her nephews, inviting them to the park and pretending everything is okay by telling her assistant to guide them and be like, "Oh, I'll talk to you guys at night, so enjoy your day in the park!" and the next thing she knows her younger nephew is dead because of a mistake. Claire probably blamed herself as much as Zach blamed her. Feeling slightly guilty, Zach nodded, "Sure thing, aunt Claire. Uh, so about what Mr Cruthers was going to say—"

"Please, Zach, call me Lowery. Now, being the tech-savvy operator of the park, I'm good with electronics and machine parts. When Claire came to me in tears and all... Well, Owen was with me then, and we cooked up this crazy plan to build a time machine that will send you back to the time before you came to Isla Nublar. And we did, sound good?"

Zach stared at the bespectacled man, "Time travel? You gotta be kidding me, please tell me this is a joke."

"Nope, kid, real as it can be." Owen looked at Zach dead in the eye, "Listen, Zach, you're not the only one who has lost someone. Your family lost your kid brother, I lost my raptors, Lowery and Vivian both lost the love of their jobs and Claire lost all that she fought to build for. All of us agreed to this insane plan because we want to let our other selves have a better life instead of suffering the way we do now. Even if we can no longer have our loved ones back, you'd feel comforted knowing that out there in some other timeline, the person you love is alive and kicking. It's crazy, we know, but you never know you're gonna succeed until you try, right?"

Zach's heart was pounding like a sledgehammer, he took another mouthful of latte, "How the hell did you guys build something like the time machine? And what's the catch?"

"Oh, c'mon, Zach, we literally created dinosaurs from the DNA of fossils and other animals, why not a time machine? As for the catch, well, you _can't_ be seen. Not ever."

Zach was confused, "Can't be seen? I don't get it, auntie, won't I merge with my past self?" "No, I couldn't make that happen, that's why we're here, you need to know and be trained." Lowery's eyes, which were usually twinkling with amusement, were dead serious.

"Trained? In what?"

"In what I do, or did, for that matter." Owen started speaking, "You'll be sent much more farther back, right when the Indominus was just created. We figured that even if you saved your brother, the Indominus would still be a problem and we all know what it's like to be hunted by that thing. To make it easier, you will have to get in it's view and allow it to imprint on you. We already have your cover story and role ready. You'll be an animal-trainer like me, doing things like what I did with my raptors. Try to get the position of the Indominus's trainer and things will most likely flow normally from there."

"Get the trust of your aunt, Lowery and me. Do _not_ , under any circumstances let InGen know what you're up to. I won't let those bastards use my raptors like that ever again. To be an animal-trainer, you gotta learn from me, so I'm gonna teach you soon. A little request of mine: try to get close to all four of my raptors and keep 'em all alive."

Zach felt a little overwhelmed by all that he had to know and do, "Won't auntie recognize me?"

Claire smiled, "I won't, Zach, you've grown, I didn't even know you that well back then so it shouldn't be a problem. There is no need for disguises, just keep your profile low key as much as possible and watch out for turning points." Lowery exhaled, "So, how 'bout it? Will you do it?"

Zach stared at all three occupants of the table, "Saving my brother and preventing a catastrophe? Not a problem, I'm in."

"Well, then, let's get started."

* * *

Night has fallen and Zach was as tired as hell. He'd left a message for his parents saying that he'll be attending a very long school trip that will probably take a long, long time in a month. The eldest son of the Mitchell family was thinking of the huge responsibility he had and the upcoming training regime he was going to receive from Owen and groaned. 'Your boyfriend is real scary when he starts training, aunt Claire.' Zach sighed, tossed his phone to one side and prepared to get a good night's sleep.

_After a month of rigorous training..._

Zach packed his phone, a few clothes, a couple of books and other necessities into a small bag and slung it over his shoulder. Looking around his room one last time, Zach stepped out of it, the house, and was on the way to Lowery's place. 'Damn, and I haven't even got my driving test yet.' He thought as he began the long walk. Phone vibrating, Zach read the message sent by his mom:

_Love,_ _have fun during the trip, your dad and I will be waiting for you when you get home, alright?_

Zach smiled faintly, there is no one for his parents to wait for unless he actually comes back from the time travel alive. His determination spiked: he was going to come back alive no matter what.

Zach ran through the plan in his head:

1\. Get the trust of Lowery, Claire and Owen.  
2\. Let the raptors and the I-Rex imprint.  
3\. Keep an eye out for turning points and the I-Rex.  
4\. When past selves arrive, avoid contact unless necessary.  
5\. Watch out for InGen, tell the truth to past selves and Owen if needed.  
6\. Stay alive, prevent a catastrophe and come home.

Yep. that is just what he has got to do.

* * *

"Just in time, Zach," Claire hugged her remaining nephew and led him to the basement of Lowery's house where the time machine resided. Upon seeing said machine, Zach's mouth fell open, "Whoa,"

Lowery grinned, "Pretty cool, huh? I spent four months on this thing, making sure I got things right, otherwise it would get really nasty if there is some sort of malfunctioning." Owen rolled his eyes, "Right, malfunctioning, when we all know you're the tech-genius." "Hey, even geniuses make mistakes," Lowery defended himself. Zach chuckled, "Okay, so, do I go in?"

"Not yet, gimme a minute to fix up the timeline."

As Lowery tinkered away with the timer, Zach looked around the basement. It looked really similar to a garage with all the tools hanging/scattered around. That is when he noticed his reflection in a mirror. One month ago, he would have looked like the way he was upon leaving Jurassic World eleven months ago, only worse. Now, he saw a muscular adult-teen staring right back at him, brown hair slightly messed up. 'No one's gonna recognize me like this,'

"Like your new look?" Owen was grinning at Zach who twitched in annoyance, "Yes, but I hate what I had to go through just to achieve this." Claire giggled at his statement as Lowery emerged from the machine, "All set! Time to fly!"

Zach turned and walked towards the time machine. He stepped into the area shaped like an elevator and locked eyes with all three occupants in the room.

"Good luck, Zach, change all that has to be changed."

"What she said, kid, and remember the raptors."

"And so we go," Lowery declared as he punched the activation button. A bright light shone above Zach's head as electricity crackled into existence. The soon-to-be time traveler smiled at his friends and aunt, there was nothing that needed to be said. Zach kept looking until the machine whisked him away into the flow of time.

The adventure for a second chance has begun.


	3. Getting to Know the Inside of Jurassic World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach's in the past, he sees some old faces, and begins his new job as a dinosaur trainer.

Zach opened his eyes to whiteness. Well, the whiteness of a ceiling to be exact. He sat up and looked around the room he is in. Upon seeing it, Zach could not help but praise Lowery for a good job done. 'He actually got me an apartment in the past...Holy crap.'

He was sitting on a bed next to a window with forest green curtains hanging over them. There was also a desk, a chair, and other necessary items. 'No doubt the rest of the apartment is gonna be like that too.' Zach peeked out of the window and felt his breath catch.

He was already on the Isla, in one of the staff apartments.

'...Damn,'

Zach went to the living room when the doorbell rang. He opened it to see Zara Young, his aunt's assistant, waiting patiently outside the door. "Hi, you're the new recruit, yes?" At Zach's nod of confirmation, Zara continued, "Good, now you're going to meet our park's operations manager and she will brief you on what you have to do. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Zach decided to go the way he arrived, so he stepped out of his room with his bag and they headed off to the Control Room. Upon reaching said place, Zach was met with the sight of people bustling around, doing what they need to do. Gazing at the screen which showed the entire park's condition was a recognizable redhead with the usual white uniform.

"Claire, the new recruit is here."

Claire turned around and fixed her steady gaze on Zach who shivered slightly, "Mr Reilly, I take it?" 'Wow, Lowery wasn't kidding about setting everything in place for me.' Zach nodded as his mind scrabbled around for a name, "Yes, Wade Reilly, and you are au—Miss Claire?" Zach inwardly cursed at his near slip-up. "Indeed, now, this is Lowery Cruthers and Vivian and I believe you've just met my assistant, Zara Young. Since you're good with animals, I have decided to put you working with Mr Grady, with the recently created Velociraptors."

Zach cheered silently in his head, "Raptors? Aren't they, um, handled by more experienced trainers?" Claire smiled, "I've made an exception this time," Turning to Zara, the redhead instructed, "Take Mr Reilly to the raptor pen, we'll see how it goes."

"Right away,"

* * *

Upon reaching the pen, Zach was greeted by another familiar face: Owen. Zara had left him there and went off to wherever she is needed.

"Mr Grady?"

Owen looked up, "Oh, you're the new guy right? Just Owen is fine," Wiping his hands on a rag, Owen shook hands with Zach, "Wade Reilly," Owen nodded and brought him to the catwalks where he could get an aerial view of the pen. "Your job is to basically interact with them, feed them and—this is really important—calm them down when they're pissed." Zach smiled dryly, "Alright, anything else?" "Hmm, probably get them to listen to you to an extent." Owen stated as he began to go back down, "Would you like to meet them?"

"Yes, please."

The raptors' heads were placed in the muzzles and Zach cautiously made his way up to them. "Careful," Owen warned, "They're still young, so their attitude is a little unpredictable," Zach nodded and carefully raised his hand as he maintained eye contact with all four raptors and switched slowly between them.

"This is Echo, Delta, and Charlie. That's Blue, she's the hardest to train because she's the pack alpha, or beta, once I'm through with them."

"Nice names, really fitting."

Still maintaining eye contact, this time on Blue, as Zach really liked her out of the four since she saved his life, he touched Blue's head. When Blue did not react, Zach started stroking the tough scales and Blue's eyes became slightly half-lidded: she was enjoying the treatment.

That is when the other raptors started hissing and trying to bare their teeth with their heads still muzzled and Owen had to calm them down. Playing confused, Zach slowly removed his hand and asked, "Did I do something wrong?" Owen only chuckled, "Nah, they're just jealous that their sister gets the special treatment from you first while they don't." Zach had to laugh, "Cute,"

"Oh, don't worry, you just haven't seen them pissed." Owen snickered.

After that, Zach had to listen to Owen's pep talk on how to care for the raptors. Although he already knew some of the details, he still had to pay attention for a) appearances, and b) there are new stuff that might actually help because future Owen only trained him on how to care for the matured raptors that he knew. After the talk, Zach had to go through several tests with the raptors. It went pretty well except for when Echo almost took off his hand, "She's the one with the most temper," Owen had said, Zach struggled to keep his eyes from rolling, 'Don't I know it?'

After the tests, Owen brought him to one of the park's jeep and they began the tour of the whole park.

* * *

Zach interacted with the pterosaurs and pterodactyls, the mosasaur, the T-Rex and other dinos. When the day was over and he finally got to leave, Zach felt as exhausted as the time when Owen trained him in the future. He tried not to think about it since his heart would get more heavier with homesickness. Turning his mind to more important things, Zach began to think about the Indominus as he headed off to the bathroom. He remembered a detail of the dino hybrid during a conversation between him, Owen and Claire:

_"There used to be two, but the one that attacked us ate her sibling. Right after they hatched, too."_

_"You saw?"_

_"Yes, Zach, I did, quite disturbing, actually."_

_"Don't you think two of those man-eating monsters are_ too _much?"_

_"InGen can't see that apparently, and if I remember right, Claire, it was Mr Masrani who wanted 'more teeth, bigger, and scarier', right?"_

_"Yeah, he said that it would be cool."_

Zach snorted as he toweled his hair dry. Cooler, yeah, right. More like uncontrollable, insane, and downright dangerously unpredictable. He wondered if he would actually get to train the hulking hybrid who munched up his brother. A flash of anger came through his mind and Zach forced the memories of Gray's death out of his mind before he broke down again. Sighing, Zach decided to put his mind to rest in preparation for the definitely tiring day tomorrow. He fell asleep before his head hit the pillow.

_'I love you, Gray.'_


	4. Training and Hanging Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach gets familiar with his new routine as well as making friends.

The next day, Zach went down to the raptor pen and began his job of feeding the raptors breakfast. "Morning, Wade, you're early. The name's Barry, by the way." Barry greeted the time-traveler and gave him a bucket of dead mice.

"Hey, Barry, nice to meet you too." Zach accepted the bucket and headed straight to the catwalks. He whistled sharply, calling out to the four of the Raptor Squad. There was the sound of swift pattering dino feet as Blue first came into view along with the others. Blue snarled and tossed her head fiercely as Charlie followed suit. Echo bared her teeth and snapped her jaws together again. Delta hissed as she fixed her yellow eyes on the bucket in Zach's hand.

"Whoa, girls, chill. You'll get your food, it's right here and not going anywhere."

Zach hung the metal container on one of the hooks lining the catwalk railings as he began the eye contact exercise. Delta was the first to calm down as she recognized the second trainer, she chirped lightly to her leader and Blue hissed, responding. Blue then returned her gaze to Zach and waited expectantly for the mice. Echo insisted on being aggressive though, and that caused the second-in-command to irritably snap her jaws in her sister's direction. With Echo finally silent, Zach reached into the bucket and held up a rat.

"You first, Blue."

Blue leaped up and snapped the rat out of the air as Delta inched forward to get a better angle for food-snapping. Once Delta had her turn, Echo pushed her way through impatiently and got a snarl from the blue streaked raptor. Shrinking slightly, Echo seemed to sigh and lazily waited her turn, though Zach knew that she was just pretending to be docile.

He threw the third rat anyway and Echo snapped it up. Swinging away imperiously, Echo snarled at Charlie who hissed as she padded forward for her turn. Blue let her go through despite still being hungry and wanting more. Charlie, sensing it, backed down quickly right after Zach threw the rat and Blue ate it. That set Echo off: she hated the way Charlie 'sucks up' to their oldest sister. So she lunged forward all of a sudden and got right into Charlie's face. Charlie reared back in surprise and Echo advanced, growling angrily.

Zach watched the oncoming raptor brawl below with slight interest, he figured that Blue would control the situation anyway. But when Echo lashed out with her claws, almost catching Charlie in the face, an enraged roar ripped free of the alpha/beta's throat as she joined the fray herself. Zach knew that the raptors would be fighting each other like crazy in no time so he was already moving down to the entrance to the pen.

"Damn it! Elvis is at it again!" Barry growled, annoyed as he got ready to call Owen. To his surprise, Zach swept past him and punched the button that allowed the tough gates to rise. Barry stared at Zach incredulously, opening the gates like that? It was a terrible risk. But the tamer still went over to man the controls, just in case.

Once he was in the pen, Zach whistled sharply, catching the attention of only Delta, who seemingly gave him a look of annoyance. Zach sighed, "I get it," and whistled louder, sharper and he started clicking the device that Owen borrowed him for situations like these. Blue whirled around and stopped fighting. Charlie was now on the defensive as Echo pressed on.

"Echo, stop it. ECHO!"

The second youngest of the pack stopped and turned to Zach whose expression looked stern. "That's enough, no fighting." Echo snarled and snapped at Zach, like: 'Who do you think you are to stop me?' and started advancing on the human. Charlie padded forward quietly to stand behind Blue as Echo and Zach faced off.

"Hold it right there, Echo, hold it."

Echo growled but slowed down, Zach nodded slowly, "That's right, good. Now, no fighting, or do I have to call Owen in here?" At the sound of the name, Echo hissed, but started backing down. Meanwhile, Charlie was still hungry and wanted breakfast, and had her sights set on Zach.

"Uh, Wade? You might wanna get out of there."

"Hang on, I've got this."

Barry watched anxiously as the younger employee slowly backed towards the gates. The tamer wanted to punch the close button so badly but could not until Zach was out of the pen. But with Charlie being hungry...

"Charlie! Catch!"

A rat sailed out of nowhere and Charlie snapped it up. Seizing the chance, Zach ran out of the pen and yelled, "Shut the gates!" which Barry promptly did. Zach spun back to see Charlie gulping down the rat while Delta stared at him. Blue was busy chewing out Echo in raptor speak as the scarred raptor glared resentfully at her leader with an air of unwillingness.

"Well, someone's still sore about not being pack leader." Zach turned to see Owen standing there with a huge grin on his face.

"Did you throw the rat?"

"Yep, well done, Wade. I couldn't have done it better myself back when I first started training 'em."

"Uh, thanks? Oh, and this is yours," Zach held out the device.

"Nah, keep it, I've got another one back in my bungalow."

Barry snorted and Zach chuckled. Owen rolled his eyes and said, "Well, it's time to swim, Wade, I'll see you at lunch." Zach grimaced and nodded, "Ugh, mosasaur training time..." "C'mon, man, that dino can't be as bad as these guys." Barry deadpanned as he gestured at the pen. Zach shrugged, "Well...it has more teeth than the raptors."

"Is that even a reason?!"

Owen laughed and waved Barry off, "Like I said, raptors are awesome." Zach smiled, "See you later then,"

"Uh-huh,"

_Time skip..._

Zach stared at the peaceful lagoon as he thought of the dino bird attack that resulted in Zara's death. He then jogged up to the place where the announcer usually stands during showing times and peered cautiously into the water. He could see it swimming lazily beneath the waters as it slowly began to surface, sensing him. Zach quickly backed away and saw a woman waving at him out of the corner of his eye.

Zach went towards the woman who introduced herself as Stephanie and instructed him on how to operate the crane and Zach fed the mosasaur a shark though it took him several tries and almost half the morning to do so. By the time he was done, it was almost time for lunch. Zach bade Stephanie goodbye and decided to do one more breakfast feeding, he thought about it and decided to head off to a certain paddock.

_After a long walk to Paddock 9..._

"You sure you wanna feed it?"

"Dead sure,"

"You're askin' for it, man, you've got guts."

Zach smiled dryly, "Thanks, is the crane operations the same as the mosasaur?"

The guy currently on duty nodded, "Yeah, the cranes 'round here are all the same, ya just gotta do watch for where ya goin' and ya'll do fine."

Zach operated the huge machine and successfully fed the T-Rex. By then, his stomach was really rumbling and Zach decided to catch a break and headed off to the mess hall.

* * *

Earphones stuck in his ears, Zach listened to a recent oldie: Hall of Fame, as he bought his lunch.

_Yeah, you could be the greatest  
You can be the best  
You can be the King Kong banging on your chest  
You could beat the world  
You could beat the war  
You could talk to God, go banging on his door_

Zach picked up his tray and searched for Owen, he hummed along as he did.

_Standing in the hall of fame  
_ _And the world's gonna know your name  
_ _'Cause you burn with the brightest flame  
_ _And the world's gonna know your name  
_ _And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame_

Finally seeing the seasoned ex-Marine, Zach went over and sat down. The table consisted of Owen, Barry and another guy who Zach does not know.

"Wade, glad to see you survived,"

"Not funny, Barry." Zach rolled his eyes as he started eating. "Yeah, well, this is Katashi Hamada, he's the leader of ACU." Barry introduced the unknown man to the hungry adult-teen. "Nice to meet you, Wade," Both shook hands and Zach replied, "Nice to meet you too, Katashi." The four talked about many things: InGen, the dinos, ACU works, and many other topics. Then Katashi excused himself to resume his work and Lowery took his place.

"Dude, did you seriously tame the raptors on your first try?"

"I didn't tame them. Like Owen said, it's all based on mutual respect. Echo's the only raptor who still hates me for some reason." Zach laughed a little as he drank some water.

Owen chuckled, "Probably because you told her off earlier? She doesn't like the way Charlie respects Blue, and truthfully I think Charlie's overdoing it."

Lowery grinned, "You're learning quickly, Wade, Claire'll be impressed when she hears this. You'll probably get assigned by the end of the week. See you guys later." Barry chuckled as the tech-savvy man left the table, "Weird guy,"

Zach simply smiled as he downed the rest of his water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The part with the song lyrics was me trying to emulate writers who did that in FF.Net. It was quite a famous trend then, it was long after I've finished the story did I find out that including song lyrics in a story can be a little odd, especially with the way I put it. The choice of song was also a little... =v=;; oh well.


	5. Has the Time Come?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will Zach make his move?

It was another tiring day of training dinosaurs, Zach lazily made his way back to his apartment. On the way there, he went past the Innovation's Center and suddenly heard hushed voices. Zach tensed and ducked swiftly behind the plants near the doors as two people came out of the building.

"We can't let show it to the people, this asset is too dangerous."

"But if we don't, park attendance is gonna drop like crazy. Besides, Wu creating this wasn't exactly a walk in the park, InGen's backing him up. The Indominus is too expensive to kill off, Claire, we _have_ to keep pushing on."

"Mr Masrani, I really don't think— oh, alright. But the Indominus eating it's sibling right after they hatched...it's disturbing."

"It doesn't matter, it's still young, we have time to train it and control it. The situation is with us, Claire, it's _fine_."

"As you say, Mr Masrani, where did Wu put the asset, anyway?"

"He placed it in a reinforced nesting cage which is near the new embryos."

Claire and Simon Masrani's voices got fainter and fainter as they got farther from the Center. Zach's head was spinning, 'Asset, Indominus, sibling, control, fine, cage,' and the location of where the newly hatched dino is. Zach knew that this was his chance to imprint on the hybrid that brought him so much grief, it was time to change it all.

_Finding the laboratory of genetically-modified/created dinos..._

Zach carefully avoided the lasers and other security stuff as he cautiously maneuvered his way through the lab. He also watched out for guards, not that there were many but he still had to be careful. He inched his way towards the Room of Hatching and saw thousands of eggs set in special racks while those about to hatch were resting on snug hay patches. Zach surveyed the room intensely, watching out for invisible lasers before slowly twisting and turning his way through.

Upon arriving at the reinforced glass cage lined with hay, Zach saw the hatchling licking on several long white objects. Zach knew that those were dino bones and felt sick. He came closer still and observed the baby Indominus with fascination, now he knew why Gray was so hell bent on being a dinosaur wikipedia. They _are_ interesting after all.

Sensing the presence of someone else, the Indominus looked up and saw Zach. She instantly recoiled and started hissing and baring her crocodile teeth. She believed that Zach is one of the stupid scientists, come to torment her.

Zach's eyes were fixed on the baby rex as she stared back, having realized Zach was a tad bit different from the scientists who usually wore white. Both held eye contact for a while and Zach spoke softly, "Hi,"

The Indominus blinked, 'hi' is a new word for her, all she hears is 'asset, eggs, genetic-modifying' and a bunch of crazy numbers and equations that the lab workers bandy around all day. The highly intelligent creature always wondered about how she was born, how should she even exist. Even if she just hatched hours ago, she already understood that all dinosaurs in this 'park' place are created, and she knew that she was just the same. So when this...human, came up to her and said 'hi', it really caught her off guard.

As the young dino was thinking all this while staring, Zach was busy trying to stop himself from picking up the cage, smashing it open and strangling the little thing inside. Upon seeing the I-Rex bare it's crocodile teeth earlier, Zach felt all the memories of Gray's death come crashing down on him and really wanted to kill it. But he knew that doing so is not going to bring his brother back so he forced himself to be calm and went on with the plan.

"I don't like you, but I'll try to put the past behind me. I'm Zachary Mitchell, but people usually call me Zach. I'm from the...never mind where I'm from. My alias is Wade Reilly, so don't be surprised if people call me that."

The Indominus stared blankly at Zach as her mind processed all this. She had no idea what the human was trying to imply, but the words 'Zachary Mitchell, Zach' and 'Wade Reilly' made an impact on her and she figured that this 'Zach' was introducing himself to her. She also detected a hint of hate in his tone and that got her wondering. But she felt that she could trust him and so she let out a little affirmative chirp.

She wanted someone to treat her nice, and not stare at her like she is a thing. This Zach person seems really nice and she wanted his attention but she was still very confused, and had no idea how to communicate with him. The Indominus shuffled her feet and continued to stare at Zach who was thinking.

"Can't keep calling you the Indominus Rex, you need a proper name. Let's see...maybe Selena suits you, do you like it?"

The Indominus froze, did the human just name her? The stupid scientists never bothered to give her one. What was the name again? Selena? It sounded human, but nice. Did she like it? Yes, she really did. Chirping as she advanced slowly until she reached the face of the damn glass, she gazed into Zach's eyes, hoping for some sort of reaction.

Zach glanced behind him and heard footsteps: his time was up. Zach looked back at Selena and said, "We'll see each other again," before weaving his way through the lasers and hid beside the doors. After the footsteps faded away, Zach swiftly darted out of the Room and escaped the Center. Once he was back out in the open, he made a beeline for the apartments as it was already quite late.

* * *

Claire was in her own apartment, worrying about the Indominus problem. Although Masrani told her that it was alright, she still felt worried. Sighing, she turned to several reports laid out on her desk. She decided to read them and take her mind off the asset.

Shuffling through the papers, she caught sight of Owen's report regarding Wade's actions earlier this morning. She lifted another and realized that most reports were about Wade's progress today.

_Owen's Report: Good with handling the raptors, quite a natural._

_Stephanie's Report: Quick and deft at using the crane once taught, though it took him several tries. Has expressed dislike for this particular dinosaur too._

_'T-Rex guy' Report: Very daring, fed Rexy like it's something he does everyday._

Claire was silent, 'This Wade is quite good with all the dinos here, the raptors are a definite yes, the mosasaur is a no, and Rexy is okay... but won't that be too much? Hmm, we'll see by the end of the week.'

Claire stacked up the reports and put them neatly into a tray reserved for them and sighed, the newest asset was really worrying. Then she finally went to bed.

* * *

Zach was gazing at a picture of Gray in his phone. He then hit the lock-screen button as he began thinking of the mental list in his head:

Owen's trust: Check  
Raptor Imprint: Check  
Indominus Imprint: In progress  
Claire's Trust: In progress  
Lowery's Trust: In progress

'So far so good,' Zach peered out of the window overlooking the park. He was still coming to terms with being friendly to the... _thing_ , ugh, hybrid dino. He knew what it was going to turn into, but he also knew that this happened because of Selena being socially damaged. He wondered if he could actually become friends with it and train it. He remembered what Lowery said about getting assigned and hoped that Claire would give him the okay.

Zach thought back to when Selena gave him that surprised, curious, look of disbelief, he felt sorry for the poor dino. No one cared about her feelings, whether or not she was content or anything. They just treated her like a thing or in the past Claire's favorite word: asset. No wonder it went on a rampage, jeez.

'I'm gonna make sure what happened last time does not happen,'

With that last thought, Zach flipped down on to his bed and closed his eyes.


	6. A Day in the Life of Dinosaurs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinosaur POV

_Indominus Rex -_ _Selena_

Selena gazed at her reflection critically in her new paddock's observatory glass. She had been moved just a few days ago after Zach's visit and she did not like her new living conditions at all. The walls were freaking high, and there was nothing but forest greens around. Back to her reflection:

She has grown. Even bigger than just a few days ago when she was just a newborn hatchling.

Selena sighed inwardly and allowed her camouflage to activate, turning her completely invisible as she returned to the deep greens. 'Stupid humans, stupid everything, why am I the only one in here?'

Selena was aware of her unnatural growth and she did not like it. But if it helped to make her grow bigger and stronger, fine. She also discovered other abilities that she had, namely camouflaging and anti-thermal detecting.

Selena rummaged through her fuzzy memories as she tried to remember something else... something from the very beginning of her hatching. There was another egg... she hatched before that egg, and then... oh. Selena released a growl of bitterness, she ate her own sister and she only remembered now.

She tried to remember more, she remembered that it was something that _drove_ her to eat whatever living thing that was closest to her. Selena frowned, she was hungry after she hatched. She ate the shell and membrane of her egg, but it was not enough. Nobody fed her anything, they just bustled about doing their own thing. So Selena set her sights on the egg next to her.

She could feel the heat of a living being encased within. She could literally hear it's heartbeat. Her hunger mounted until she could not take it anymore. Then when the egg hatched, she pounced on it and chomped it up.

'Oh, ugh... I can't believe I ate my own...'

Selena reached the middle of the paddock and settled down miserably: she'd rather stay in the white-egg-filled-room than inside this...this boring, dull, lonely paddock. All she had for company was the stupid guard in the observatory and the stupid silver crane.

Selena sighed again as she rested her head on her arms, she missed having company. Wait, when did the humans ever even pay attention to her? Oh, right! There was Zach! He talked to her! Selena rose excitedly, she'd find Zach and get him to talk to her again! Then she would not need to be so alone. As she thought this, Selena stomped over quickly to the door when she realized that she is stuck. The door is too tough for her to break when it is closed tightly.

The hybrid dino released a roar of frustration and desperation, she wanted to get out. She hated this round place, the high walls. She felt trapped. Selena started ramming her shoulder against the door which refused to give in. She stormed back to the observatory glass, where the guard was staring at her in fear as he contacted someone.

Selena began clawing at the glass, bashing her head against it, furiously trying to break it to no avail.

She _wanted_ OUT. Damn it, is that even too much to ask for? Why would they not let her out?

Feeling bitter and miserably confused, Selena began padding back to the middle when she picked up the sounds of clicking coming from the observatory building. She swung around and glared at whomever it was.

It turned out to be Claire, who looked extremely nervous and worried, "When did she start storming around?" "A little while before," the guard replied.

'Storming around?' Selena bared her teeth and snarled at the redhead who looked grim. "Like I said, this asset is too dangerous...well, keep an eye on it and keep me informed," Claire left the observatory and the guard inched his way back to his seat nervously.

Selena felt like ripping her way through the buildings and getting her jaws closed around that human who dared said the word that she detested most of all: asset. She snarled one last time before stomping back to the clearing in the middle to get some rest.

'When am I going to see you again, Zach? You're the only human out there I really want to see.'

Selena felt weird, she was not sure what sort of emotion she is feeling right now, she just knows she wants to see the human who had treated her nice.

* * *

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie_

Delta was lazily catching flies with her tongue out of boredom as another hot, lazy day passed by. Other than training with the alpha and being attractions for all the other humans, there was nothing else to do in the raptor pen. Delta sighed and laid down her head as her eyes began to close.

"Delta, get the other two, we need to talk."

Delta groaned, "Blue...I'm tired..."

The beta growled, "Now,"

Delta sighed, "Fine..." the second-in-command rose up and padded off into the greens to find her sisters. Echo was snoring under her favorite tree while Charlie was pawing at the ground for no reason. 'They're all bored as hell,' Delta thought with an inward sigh before barking at both, "Get up, Echo, come with me, Charlie, Blue's calling."

Echo roused herself and Charlie quickly darted off to find her adored leader: she just wanted to get out of Echo's way for Echo is usually very crabby when she wakes up.

Sure enough, Echo tossed her head irritably and growled, "What now? Can't she seriously just leave us alone? And Charlie is only too happy to go," Echo snorted as she leveled a glower at Delta. "Don't give me that shit, Echo, I can't believe you still haven't gotten over the fight for leader. Just put it down and stop dishing out your anger on Charlie," Delta snapped before leaving the second youngest behind out of annoyance.

Echo huffed and followed bitterly.

_Back with Blue..._

"What's going on? I just wanna go back to sleep..." Echo grumbled upon arrival.

Blue gazed at Echo with a piercing look, "You'd better behave otherwise... After your little stunt the other day and nearly hurting one of your sisters, I will _not_ tolerate any more crap from you, Echo, you hear me?"

Echo lowered her head in bitter submission and said mockingly, "Yes, _pack leader_ ,"

Blue snarled a warning before resuming her 'leader aura', "I want to talk about the new trainer who stopped the...little incident, the other day. For some reason, I feel like I can trust him, but he sure is strange. Have any of you got anything to say? I'd like to hear what you think about him."

Echo hissed furiously at the mention of Wade, 'Crashing my fun! Who does he think he is? Butting in like this...' while Delta and Charlie started blinking in surprise and thinking.

"I guess...he's strangely experienced for a new trainer?" Delta said thoughtfully, "Like, he knew what he was supposed to do and how to calm us down."

"Now that you mention it," Charlie remembered, "His ways are somewhat similar to Owen's. But since he's new, there's no way Owen would be able to teach him, right?"

Blue nodded thoughtfully, "Hmm, seems just about right, Echo?"

Echo twitched before reluctantly thinking back to the time Wade stopped her, she frowned when she realized something, "His eyes...his eyes held hidden pain and...recognition? It also held some sort of... nah, I don't know. I was too mad to pay attention," Echo finished nonchalantly. Blue snorted but her raptor brain was spinning in thought, "Hidden pain, recognition... that's it! Experience! It's like he knew us before, like he knew what might happen."

Delta looked startled, she did not realize it for she had been too busy trying to think of a way to stop the three-way fight while Charlie herself had been too busy trying to counter Echo's attacks.

"Yeah, yeah, is there even a point to this discussion of that Wade human? I don't wanna talk about him, why are we even doing this anyway?" Echo sighed lazily. She just wanted her beauty sleep, not that she lacked it: the heat was just making her tired and woozy.

Blue understood though she wished that Echo would change her attitude. Gazing at her sister with a kind of silent determination, Blue said quietly, "He is strange and weird, he holds many secrets and I want to know what they are. He has already interacted with us and if he is dangerous to our pack, I'll have him _removed_."

Delta and Charlie nodded while Echo's frown only made her face more grotesque, "What is it about him that you need to know, Blue? He's just a human..." Echo yawned tiredly.

"I...I don't know, but there's just this gut feeling that makes me uneasy... Like something bad will happen soon..." Blue murmured, lost in thought as she padded to the tough gates that barred the raptors from the human world.

"Ah, whatever,"

Echo disappeared into the foliage and Charlie timidly followed: she loves Echo no matter how much the elder always bullied her.

Delta remained, she looked at her leader, "Blue..."

Blue was still lost in thought as she gazed blankly outside. Suddenly, human footsteps alerted both raptors and Blue snapped back to reality.

"...crazy as hell, it almost broke the observatory glass!"

"Holy frickin' hell, are you serious?"

"Dead serious, John, I've never seen Miss Dearing so worried before! She's usually all calm and collected. The Indominus Rex must be something...Like it's part T-Rex, part raptor and who knows what else... I just hope that it will be controlled soon."

Blue's eyes did not leave the scientists until they were out of sight, "In...do...mi...nus Rex?" Delta had question marks all over her head as she tried to pronounce the made up word. "I don't know, but it must be another new dinosaur those arrogant humans created. Something is really happening, Delta, I'm worried. What if the pack is threatened?"

Delta was silent, "Well, I don't know either, Blue. We'll just have to see, I guess..."

The pack leader nodded silently as she left for the forest, leaving Delta standing there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing about Selena (or the Indominus Rex lol) was inspired from SkullsandDuggery's (FF.Net) story, It's not the Raptor DNA. Here, the author has an interesting take on the intelligence of the hybrid dinosaur, which is super interesting, do check it out if you're interested! :)
> 
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11317119/1/It-s-not-the-Raptor-DNA


	7. Getting to Train What Needs to Be Trained

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach achieves a couple key parts of his plan.

It was the last day of Zach's first week and he was currently dusting off all the dry mud and sand as he went into the mess hall. Getting his lunch, he began eating as he watched the activity in the hall.

Just then, Lowery passed by and said, "Hey, Wade, Claire wants to see you right after you've finished your lunch. Said it was really urgent and important," grinning, Lowery added, "Think you know which dinos you're getting assigned to? Good luck!"

Zach smiled and nodded in understanding as he scooped up another spoonful of food and sent it to his mouth.

_Earlier in the morning as all workers were beginning park operations..._

ACU member Brian Craig was checking the security cameras of the Innovation Center as scheduled. He watched the footage with a bored air since nothing really happens and there is nothing out of the ordinary to be seen.

Usually, that is.

Brian suddenly noticed a figure darting swiftly into the lab and he leaned in closer to the screen in surprise and concentration. 'Isn't that Reilly? The new guy Commander was talking about?'

Brian watched as Wade entered the hatchery after several dodging and avoiding moments. He watched the new trainer scrutinize the hatchery and avoided all security equipment.

'How the heck did he even do that? Those lasers were supposed to be invisible! And it's not easy to tell which laser beam comes from which side...'

Brian watched attentively as Wade neared the Indominus, 'Is he insane?!' he watched as Wade spoke softly to it and gave it a name before escaping the place.

Another ACU member, Jake Meyers, noticed the flabbergasted expression on his comrade's face. "Hey, Craig, what up man? What did you see?"

Brian wordlessly pointed to the security footage that kept replaying Zach's little 'adventure' and Jake's jaw fell open.

"Let's get Claire and see what she says,"

In her office, Claire was busy riffling through more reports when the voice caller buzzed. Peering at the small screen, Claire pressed and held the 'receive' button, and leaned in slightly so her voice can reach the microphone. 'What does ACU want now? There can't be an asset out of containment...'

"Yes, Claire here, is something wrong?"

"Yes, uh...no. Ma'am, we need you down here at the security cameras. It's urgent,"

"What did you see?"

"Uh..."

Awkward silence fell as Claire waited for Jake to finish. Jake was not sure how he should put this since Commander Hamada's comments about Wade were quite kind and complimentary.

"It's hard to say right here, ma'am, and we ain't no judge. Brian and I think that it's up to you to decide what you see in the footage."

Claire sighed, "Very well, I'll be right over as soon as I can."

_Moments after Claire finished watching the footage..._

Claire was leaning against the table as her mind spun round and round. 'How is it possible that he knows all the positions of the lasers?' Realizing that Craig and Meyers were still waiting for her to say something, Claire dismissed them, "I will personally see to the matter myself, thank you for informing me." The two ACUs gave her smart salutes before leaving.

Claire began returning to her office before making a split-second decision and changed her course to the Control Room. Upon arrival, she was relieved that Lowery had yet to go down for lunch. "Lowery, when you go down to lunch, I want you to find Mr Reilly and tell him to see me after he's done eating."

Lowery nodded, "Okay, noted," and Claire left the room, head swimming with the problem of the Indominus as an idea slowly came to her head.

* * *

Zach jogged up to the Innovation Center and went up a long staircase before arriving at the office of his aunt from the past, he knocked before entering.

"Miss Dearing, you asked for me?"

"Yes, Mr Reilly, please sit."

Zach sat and realized that he was a bag of nerves, did Claire find something out? Did she realized that he is her nephew, except older? Zach's worries mounted as the red-headed operations manager observed him quietly, "Five nights ago, you went into the Room of Hatching, I want to know for what purpose you went there for."

Zach's other worries fell as he focused on forming an answer. Seeing this, Claire prompted, "Well, the security footage caught you talking to our newest asset, and you basically avoided all security systems, namely the lasers. I want to know how you knew of the asset and the laser system lining the Room."

'Ugh, I forgot about the cameras near the doors... Damn, now what do I say?'

Zach swallowed as his mind raced, another conversation from the future wriggled its way into his mind.

_"How do I get close to the Indominus to imprint on it?"_

_"It will be in the hatchery before it,_ she _is moved."_

_"Uh, Claire, the hatchery is lined with security cameras and laser systems. There's no way Zach will be able to pass by that." Owen deadpanned._

_Claire thought for a moment before extracting a sheet of used paper from the mess under her files and flipped to the blank page. She began drawing a rough draft of the Room and explained to Zach, telling him where the lasers' approximate location is. "Also, do not forget the cameras in the hatchery and the ones lining the doors,"_

_"Right, got it."_

'Argh... I forgot...' Zach was still in the future until Claire cleared her throat, causing Zach to snap back to the present. Not able to find an excuse, Zach admitted the truth.

"I overheard you talking to Mr Masrani about the...asset."

Claire raised an eyebrow and Zach hurriedly added, "I just returned from dino training then, and was just passing by."

"I see, but that doesn't explain your sudden action to get friendly with a randomly created dinosaur and your knowledge of the laser system."

"I guess I was observant? I mean it doesn't take a genius to figure out that a place like the hatchery is going to be guarded. Security cameras are a definite yes but I figured there might be more than just cameras and that's how I found the lasers." Zach said carefully.

"Right, so about the asset..."

Zach failed to resist the urge to roll his eyes, "No offence, Miss Dearing, but do you mind? Those dinosaurs may be recreated from scraps of fossil DNA but they are also combine with modern day animals. Because of that, they have intelligence and understands what a human is saying. Like a dog, but more vicious and more like... a dinosaur. And those guys aren't exactly known to be tame."

Claire twitched, 'Did Owen get to the young man? Great...'

"Very well, the Indominus then—"

"She has a name and it's Selena,"

Claire twitched again, "Alright, _Selena,_ why did you decide on getting friendly with it? I mean, her."

It was Zach's turn to twitch, "Have you ever seen the way you guys raise dinosaurs? Selena will become socially damaged if she had been left the way she is. She would have been unpredictable and you wouldn't have been able to control the situation. I just did what I could to prevent her from falling into dino insanity. It's just like Owen said, you don't control dinosaurs except for the really gentle ones."

Claire closed her eyes and put her fingers together and leaned her forehead on them, it seems that Wade was more than what the eye can see.

"I'll admit that I am also very worried about the Indomi— Selena's situation. That aside, I called you here to give you your results."

Claire removed a file from a tray and handed it to Zach, "You are assigned to the raptors with Mr Grady and the Indominus, I put it in at the last moment because I have read and reread Mr Grady's reports on your progress with the raptors and they are filled with positive comments about you. Since you've already interacted with...Selena, it makes it easier. So, are you willing to take this on?"

Zach flipped through the papers, "Yes, though I didn't realize that you had the authority to put me with Selena."

Claire smiled, "I _can_ pull a few levers, don't worry, I'll explain to Masrani. Try not to bandy the fact around though, not everyone knows of the newest...creation and I don't want any leaks."

"Got it, Selena will be as polite as the raptors in no time."

Claire smiled some more, "I doubt that,"

"We'll see, good day, Miss Dearing,"

Zach left the office with a huge grin on his face.

Claire's Trust: Check  
Position of Indominus & Raptor Trainer: Check

'Yes! Alright, back to work. Next stop, Paddock 12, I'm coming, Selena! Hang on,'

Exiting the Innovation Center, Zach broke into a full sprint and zipped off to his destination.


	8. Hanging Out with A Mentally Unstable Dinosaur...Nah, Not Really

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach and Selena bonding time!

Zach arrived, out of breath, at Paddock 12 before bending down and leaning on his knees to catch his breath. He then went inside and arrived at the observatory and scanned the foliage for Selena.

"What'cha want?"

Zach showed his tag to the guard and requested permission to enter. It was not even 20 seconds and Zach was inside the paddock with the guard wishing him a good luck.

Zach slowly and carefully stepped into the forest, mindful that Selena could be anywhere and could camouflage herself easily.

"Selena? It's me, Wade."

Zach looked around as he finally lost sight of the observatory as he ventured deeper into the forest. There was no indication that a dinosaur was roaming around the place and Zach felt really nervous. 'Just where is she?'

A shimmer caught his eye and all of a sudden, he was scooped up by a huge claw and came face to face with a set of razor sharp teeth.

"Holy dinosaurs! Selena!"

Selena eyed the human critically in her hand: brown hair, wide, scared eyes, and... Selena took a whiff. Oh.

She set Zach gently down on the ground and stared at him blankly, 'Whoops, did I just try to kill the only human I like?'

Zach blew out a breath, "I'm not exactly a tough guy, Selena, thanks for not killing me." he looked at the Indominus and maintained eye contact. Selena continued to observe him silently with a hint of curiosity.

"It's okay, you're going to see me every day because I'm your trainer now."

Selena knew something happened that enabled Zach to see her everyday, she was so happy that she let out a roar of joy and Zach had to cover his ears.

"So...let's talk?"

Selena wheeled away into the forest and Zach followed. They arrived at the middle of the forest where Zach saw branches and leaves all heaped together to make a Indominus-sized nest. Selena settled down and looked expectantly at her newly appointed trainer. Zach realized that she wanted him to sit with her and did so.

Selena gazed at Zach with the same curious, questioning look, wondering what Zach was going to talk about. After Zach made himself comfortable, he closed his eyes and ran through the events that happened ever since meeting Lowery in the future.

The stress and worry that had built up over the days finally broke through the tight cage that Zach had constructed carefully and the young adult found himself spilling all his secrets to the dinosaur who knew nothing of social interaction.

"...I hated you, Selena, because you killed my sibling. My brother...whom I didn't really get to care about or spend time with. So I came back...to change it all. And now that I am here, you really just need some guidance... I guess what I'm trying to say is, I like you."

Selena listened quietly to Zach's lengthy story, she felt shocked and surprised, she could not believe what she just heard. She killed Zach's brother in the future? No wonder there was a hint of hate in Zach's tone when they first met.

Selena was still, she did not know what to do to comfort her trainer. She was afraid that because the the future incident, Zach will hate her. But he said that he likes her now, did he not? So the hybrid lowered her head in an attempt to comfort Zach by nuzzling him.

Seeing Selena's head lowering down, Zach flinched, thinking that the I-Rex was going to eat him or something. But to his surprise, a puff of air tousled his hair and Selena gently nuzzled his head. Zach laughed softly and patted Selena's snout.

"Alright, let's start training."

Zach rose to his feet and brushed off the dry leaves and bits of grass and looked the Indominus in the eye. "How much human speech do you understand?"

Selena looked thoughtful before curling two of her four claws in and stuck out the remaining two with a very narrow space between them: a bit

Zach was taken aback, he did not think that Selena knew sign language, so he asked, "Did you copy all that from humans?"

Selena's head bobbed: yes

An idea came to Zach's head and he started teaching Selena about the human alphabet and spent the next few hours trying to teach her how to write with her claw. Selena learnt pretty quickly although her writing was still messy.

After a couple minutes later, Zach examined one of the sentences that Selena clawed into the earth: I hate humans but I like Zacary very much.

The trainer could not help but laugh, "You got my name wrong, it's _Zachary_ , not Zacary. But seriously, you can just shorten it to Zach. Saves quite a bit of time,"

Selena tilted her head in confusion and smoothed out the earth and began practicing Zach's name. Zach had to try his best from laughing too hard because Selena's expression of concentration was pretty hilarious. Well, have you seen a dinosaur with a look of concentration on their faces? No? Try imagining that!

Zach managed to calm down and realized Selena was staring at him with a deadpan look, meaning that he ended up laughing too hard anyway. "Sorry, 'Lena, your expression was..."

Selena snorted and extended her claw and wrote: Idiot, causing Zach to explode again.

"Alright, alright, let's move on to sign language, though I'm don't know much about it but I'll try to teach you what I know. Now, this is the universal sign for 'okay', try it."

Mimicking her trainer, Selena once again curled in two claws and the other two into a circle, the sign that any human knows. Zach nodded in approval, "Good, now, let's try this..."

Both human and dino spent the rest of the day exploring the world of communication. By then, Selena had already grasped most of the basics and Zach was satisfied with her progress.

"Well done, Selena, we'll continue tomorrow, okay?"

The Indominus released a happy chirp and did the 'okay' sign and Zach bade her goodbye and left the paddock. Far away, the sun was already throwing a soft orange tone on Isla Nublar.

* * *

"Whoa, Wade, where have you been? Haven't seen you for the whole day,"

Lowery walked with Zach as both carried their dinner towards the table where our favorite raptor trainer was sitting at.

"Dino training, what else?"

"Which dino? You didn't show up after lunch and the girls were curious."

Owen looked at Zach questioningly and said man rolled his eyes, "Doesn't matter, I'm starving, spent the whole day getting familiar with her."

Owen shrugged and carried on eating his meal. Lowery leaned in, "Was it one of the pachys?"

"Nope,"

"Mosasaur?"

"You know I hate her, so, no."

"Stegosaurus?"

"Give him a break, will ya? I got a feeling he won't spill no matter how many times you ask him." Owen looked amused and Lowery laughed sheepishly, "Sorry, Wade,"

"No problem," Zach gave himself a pat on the back for brushing off Lowery's question, mindful that nobody should know of the Indominus.

Yet.

The eldest Mitchell was not sure how he was going to keep it from Owen though. One way or another, the ex-marine will find out and Zach will have some questions to answer.

Finishing dinner, Zach left the mess hall. On the elevator ride back to the apartments, Zach bumped into a certain red-head.

"Hello, Wade,"

"Miss Dearing! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I returned to my apartment to retrieve this," Claire showed Zach the folder she held in her hand, "So how did it go?"

Glancing around to make sure there was no cameras or people eavesdropping, Zach whispered, "Not bad, she learns quickly and now knows the basic sign language and the alphabet."

Claire was stunned and surprised, composing herself, she asked, "What was her reaction?"

"Pretty happy, actually. Though from some of the sentences she wrote, I'm the only one who can talk to her without getting killed. She seems somewhat confused as well."

Claire nodded and said, "Keep me posted, I want a report from you every weekend, is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

With that, both parted ways. Upon reaching his apartment, Zach took a shower and went straight to bed. He was afraid that spending time with Selena might trigger the dreams again, but surprisingly they did not show up and Zach got to sleep peacefully.


	9. Zach and the Dinos - A Day of Work and Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More dinosaur bonding time, and just Zach working in general.

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie_

Being the youngest sometimes pissed Charlie off: she hated being babied and getting nailed for it by Echo. Jeez, her older sister cannot seem to get over the fight with Blue. Seriously, that fight was _way_ back before Owen started training them.

Charlie yawned and resumed sleeping, drifting in and out of whatever dreams that dinosaurs dream of. Suddenly, Charlie found herself in a forest and everywhere was dark.

'Night time,' Charlie was confused, was it not the time that the sun should just about be up? Night passed hours ago.

Charlie looked around curiously, there was nothing but miles and miles of forest greens around. Then she saw the alpha, 'Owen! What is he doing here?'

That is when Charlie realized that Owen was staring at her with slight nervousness and caution, was he afraid of her? That cannot be, she knows him and he knows her, why would he be nervous?

Suddenly, Charlie felt heat. Heat that literally burned right through her thick hide. And then there was fire, fire that ripped right through her body and tore her apart, limb by limb, piece by piece, particle by particle. Charlie saw Owen's horrified expression as he was thrown back by the impact and then she knew no more.

Charlie released a strangled screech and woke up. 'Just a dream, Charlie, just a dream,' Charlie was panting heavily as she tried to shake off the feeling of getting ripped apart by human weapons.

"What the hell, Charlie, what happened?"

Charlie glanced at Echo who looked concerned despite being rudely awakened from her sleep by Charlie's strangled cry.

"N...n...nothing happened, it was just a dream." Charlie stuttered as the after images burned in her mind's eye.

"What kind of dream? A nightmare?"

Charlie nodded as she rose to her feet, shaking her head. "It's alright, though, um, thanks,"

Echo gazed at the youngest of the pack and shifted, "Blue's calling again... you'd better get going, I'm going to lie here for a little while before I go."

Charlie nodded before padding off to the direction of the gate.

_Later..._

"Today is Wade's first time to do tricks in front of the humans. I want all of you to be on your best behavior, because I want to see how he does in front of so many people. If he is like the man that keeps bothering Owen...well, we'll see how it goes. I also want you to observe him carefully, got it?"

"Yes,"

Blue sighed and glanced at the gates where the workers were already prepping for today's events. Delta then asked, "Do you think he will come feed us? He didn't show up yesterday and Owen doesn't know where he was."

"I bet my scars that he will come," Echo said dryly as she rubbed one of her scars. That is when Blue noticed that Charlie's eyes were distant and she did not seem to be paying attention to what was going on around her.

"Charlie? Everything okay? You seem quite out of it,"

Charlie jumped, "Oh! Blue! Uh, yeah...I'm okay,"

"Did you even hear what I just said?"

"Yeah, you want us to observe Wade and be on our best behavior,"

Blue nodded suspiciously but dismissed the pack anyway. Delta and Charlie left though Charlie did so in a haze, Echo remained.

Blue looked at her sharply and growled a low warning, thinking that Echo was asking for a fight again.

"Sheesh, I'm not asking for a fight, Blue. It's about Charlie,"

Blue blinked, surprised, "What about her?"

"She had a nightmare,"

Blue looked surprised, Echo never ever reported to her about things like this, much less Charlie's welfare. Blue hoped that Echo's attitude had really changed and she asked, "What sort of nightmare?"

"I'm not sure, she was hissing in her sleep, and then she mumbled our alpha's name. Later, she cried out, like she was in pain."

Blue felt worried, "I'll talk to her, thank you, Echo."

"Not a problem, Blue, just thought you should know." With that, Echo wheeled around and went into the foliage.

Blue then decided to seek out Charlie, but then thought better of it since Charlie most likely had yet to recover from the nightmare. She then left to prepare for the feeding.

* * *

Zach brushed his fingers through his hair and exited his apartment, it was time to feed the raptors. As he took the elevator ride down, he watched the park come alive with activity. There were workers busy prepping the paddocks and the attractions, and ACUs checking the paddocks for any problems.

Zach smiled faintly, to run a park as dangerous and as huge as Jurassic World, you have to be really careful and must pay attention to the smallest detail. No wonder his aunt was a workaholic, being operations manager was bound to bring tons of paperwork on top of you.

The time traveler walked to the raptor pen, wishing that he owned one of the jeeps that helped several personnel get around, or maybe even Owen's bike. The apartments were quite far from the attractions after all.

Upon reaching the pen, Zach began the daily routine of feeding them. What he did not know was that the raptors were carefully watching him, especially Blue. Zach took the chance and practiced for a bit to prepare for the upcoming performance he was going to give to the public. As Zach was doing all this, a certain hybrid dino was brooding in her paddock.

_Indominus Rex - Selena_

'I'm so bored...'

Selena was beginning the forty-ninth loop of her walk around her paddock with her camouflage activated, she did not want anyone to see her. Let them think that she is still hiding out in the forest somewhere, humph.

The hybrid was thinking of how much fun she had yesterday, how Zach taught her about the human ways of communication. She had enjoyed the lessons immensely, though she felt guilty for killing someone close to her trainer even if it had not happened yet.

Selena sighed as she completed the loop and headed off to her nest to rest. She wondered what would Zach be teaching her today, more communication? Or perhaps something human-related, after the lessons, Zach told her that not all humans are so bad, most are, but not all.

She remembered Zach mentioning the other dinosaurs living in better conditions than she. The mosasaur, the T-Rex, the raptors and many more. All had some sort of interaction with the outside while Selena did not. All she had was Zach, and that was enough though she hoped that she will get to see the outside world soon.

'Am waiting for you, Zach, can't wait for my next lesson.'

Selena laid down on her nest and closed her eyes.

_30 minutes later..._

Zach was once again out of breath as he arrived at Paddock 12, 'Damn it, I really should get a bike or something,' he then took a swig from his water prepared specially for this occasion and went inside the paddock.

Making sure that the observatory was out of view, Zach called out, "Hey, 'Lena, anybody home?"

Hearing the voice of her trainer, Selena immediately went to the direction where Zach was while allowing herself to turn visible. Upon seeing him, Selena released a small croon of happiness, Zach smiled and replied, "Good to see you too, whew, that was tiring."

Selena knew that Zach ran the last few miles to her paddock and picked him up gently, cupping him in her claws. Zach sighed in relief as his legs finally got some rest. Selena then looked up away from him towards the ground.

Removing one hand and extending one claw, Selena drew a line deep enough to be a small trench in the earth so that Zach could come up to this point of the forest and call out to her without needing to worry about being in the observatory's view while doing so.

"Good idea, 'Lena," Selena looked at her trainer proudly before walking back to her nest with Zach still cupped in her hand.

After Zach was back on the ground, Zach resumed the previous lesson of communication, this time about body language. Selena was fascinated at how humans communicated, 'They have so many ways to speak with each other, amazing!'

It was not long before that the Indominus got the gist of body language and Zach started a little exercise of a basic conversation to see how well Selena fared. Let's just say that Selena passed the test and exceeded Zach's expectations, 'This is really good, I'd better put this in my report,'

With the lessons done for the day, Zach decided to introduce Selena to the world of human games, "Hey, do you know what it means to hide and seek?"

Selena cocked her head to one side before signing: "Someone hides and the other seeks? Like a game?"

Zach grinned, "Good! This is exactly what I wanted to show you, how human children play. And yes, you got the meaning right too. How 'bout it? You hide and I seek?"

Selena crowed excitedly as she waited for Zach's instructions, and when they were given, she quickly darted off into the green depths and activated her camouflage, knowing that Zach would have a hard time finding her when she is like this.

'It's not fair, but...I guess I'm the one with the upper hand. I can hide easily with camouflaging myself and I can find Zach easily with my thermal detecting. Hope he doesn't mind that,'

Zach was still counting with his eyes closed and when he opened them, Selena was gone. Zach then began the search that would probably take all day if Selena decided not to drop a couple of hints.

After a long while of searching through the forest, Zach finally found Selena hiding behind a cluster of rocks, she was grinning toothily. "Well, that was exhausting," Zach downed the rest of the bottle of water he brought and allowed the empty container to hang down his shoulder from it's strap. "Your turn,"

Selena then closed her eyes and began the countdown, listening to the rustle of leaves as Zach ran off hurriedly. Trying to be fair, Selena tried her best to ignore the thermal heat around her and focused on counting.

Zach's eyes were moving quickly, he needed a good hiding place where he cannot be seen. 'Left, right, down...up.' Zach quickly climbed up a tree and reached up to the highest point where he was pretty much out of reach. He hid himself using several huge leaves and realized he needed better cover and arranged the leaves in such a way that he was completely surrounded. Then, he waited.

Selena scanned the foliage and moved on, Zach was nowhere to be found. Frowning, the hybrid continued searching: she refused to give up just yet. Without knowing it, she passed by Zach's hiding place without even realizing that he was above her.

Selena sniffed the air and blinked, 'His scent goes...' she looked up and could not help hissing out in amusement, 'Up? Not bad,' She sucked in a deep breath and huffed it out through her nostrils, causing the leaves to part and expose Zach.

"Well, you found me,"

Zach climbed down and grinned at Selena, "Did you like the game?" Selena nodded happily.

"We'll play more tomorrow, of course, let's not forget the lessons,"

Zach then left the paddock for lunch.

* * *

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie_

Delta ran swiftly through the foliage and skidded to a halt beside Echo, "It's almost time, right?"

"Yep, hope Charlie's up to it."

"So I've heard from Blue," Delta mused, referring to Blue telling her of Charlie's nightmare.

There was a rustling sound as Blue emerged from the shadows of the forest, she gave the other two a significant look to remind them not to speak of Charlie's nightmare in front of her.

Echo simply grunted while Delta nodded as the tourists began gathering outside the pen.

It is time.

_A few minutes before show time..._

Zach finished his lunch and moved to the raptor pen. He felt really nervous since Owen would be the one evaluating him: Zach had not forgotten the times when Owen had basically grinded his muscles into mush in the future.

'Scary...'

With that thought, Zach arrived at the pen and began preparations.

"You ready for this?"

"Nope,"

"Good luck, Owen won't be too hard on you if you make mistakes." Barry reassured the new trainer, 'Complete lie,' Zach shivered as a particular training moment too horrible to recall swam up to his mind's eye.

Sighing, Zach got up to the catwalks where the tourists were waiting. A bucket of rats were ready for him and Zach pulled out his clicker, moving towards a specific spot in front of the pig cage. He then nodded to one of the workers to release a pig and the pig instantly ran into the greens. Zach then waited for the arrival of the raptors while the spectators looked on curiously.

"Will they come?"

Zach smiled at the curious kid that asked him that question, "They will,"

Just then, a loud screech was heard followed by a pattering of raptor feet. Everyone instantly leaned in, excited to see the raptors while Zach himself was thinking, 'It's time,'

Then the four sisters came into view as they tried to get the pig. Fortunately for the curly-tailed animal, it managed to escape the claws of the raptors and Zach stepped in.

"Hold!"

The raptors stopped and hissed at him as they continued searching for the escaped prey.

"Eyes on me, girls!"

Blue snarled and Charlie bared her teeth, Delta was growling deep in her throat while Echo glared at Zach.

"Don't give me that shit, Charlie, Blue, Delta, unless you wanna miss the food?"

Zach grinned a little as he clicked the device to catch Charlie's attention which had wavered again. As for the other raptors, they stilled at the mention of missing their meals.

"Alright, and...we're moving!"

Zach moved to where the bucket was hung, just like Owen when it was his turn to do tricks. The raptors followed obediently without snapping at each other as they usually do.

"Good, that was really good, seems like none of you will be missing your food after all!" Zach said jokingly as he began throwing rats.

"Here you go, girls! And yeah, Blue, you get to have this,"

Zach threw a bigger rat and Blue snapped it right up, "Okay, hold!"

The raptors stilled once more, "Eyes up!" they straightened up and gazed at Zach, "Annnd, go!" the raptors zipped away.

Applause filled the air as the tourists clapped happily, then they left, leaving the workers behind.

Zach went down the stairs and met up with the ex-marine who was looking at him with a smile, "That was amazing for a first timer doing their first show. How did you learn my moves so fast?"

Zach wiped his hands and looked sheepish, "I guess I just watched you train them for the first few days and decided to give it a try."

Owen nodded, "You pass, Barry, clean up the pig pen ASAP. Wade, rest up, you deserve it."

Barry groaned, "Thanks a lot, Mr Alpha," and left to do as he was told. Zach smiled faintly and decided to take a well-deserved break, little did he know that he was being watched by a certain InGen member who had seen his little performance.

Time passed quickly and Zach ate his dinner with Katashi who sat with him today in the mess hall after a nice, relaxing nap. Zach then decided to visit Selena after he was done with dinner.

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie_

Blue was once again holding another meeting with her sisters, "So, what did you guys see?"

"Wade is pretty happy today, like something put him in a good mood." Delta replied.

"Yep, he seems much more cheerful, although the hidden pain is still there. It has lessened quite a lot too," Echo said as she sneaked a sideways glance at Charlie who's eyes were still slightly unfocused.

"Charlie?" Blue prompted, Charlie blinked and said, "I guess he did well, he seemed nervous though that's probably because the alpha was watching him."

Blue nodded and dismissed her sisters, but she added, "Charlie, stay,"

Charlie stayed, confused as to why Blue would want her to stay behind. Then Blue asked her of the nightmare and a surprised Charlie described it to her leader.

Blue sighed and waved Charlie off, it seems that something dangerous might be threatening their lives, the beta just does not know what.

* * *

_Indominus Rex - Selena_

Selena was clawing sentences into the earth to pass the time when she detected a familiar thermal heat signature.

'Zach!'

Selena reached out and rearranged a patch of her nest so that her trainer would be comfortable and waited for his arrival.

"Hey, Selena, how are you?"

Selena rolled her eyes and clawed: "Boring without you,"

Zach smiled and plopped down on the patch reserved for him and said, "Yeah, well, I had quite a busy day today. I did my first feeding show! It was so amazing..."

Zach started sharing the day's activities with Selena and she listened in fascination, how she wished that she would also get to live like the raptors!

Both human and dino spoke for quite awhile and Selena wrote: "Is it okay if I want see how your brother looks like? I'd like to recognize him when he comes in the future,"

Zach felt surprised at the special request but he whipped out his Samsung and showed the I-Rex a picture of Gray. For some weird reason, Zach felt eager to share his life with Selena today and launched into the childhood adventures that he and Gray went through.

"...he was so freaked that I fashioned a lame axe out of paper and a stick and declared that I would protect him. Though...I guess I didn't keep that promise."

Selena nuzzled Zach's head to comfort him before finally writing: "It's late, you should go, I'll wait for you tomorrow,"

Zach smiled and touched his forehead to Selena's and said, "Yeah, see you tomorrow," before leaving the paddock with a happy and tired soul.

What Zach did not know was that Owen had followed him to Paddock 12 and watched him enter and leave. Owen wondered what sort of dinosaur was Zach interacting with in such an out-of-the-way place before deciding to leave.

'I'll ask him when I have the chance.'


	10. Events Move Apace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things begin to stir, Zach is no longer entirely incognito!

Behind the Innovation Center, there was a smaller building where most of the InGen staff lived in. Victor Hoskins was stirring his favorite morning drink as he thought back to yesterday during the raptor show. He then looked at the file he took from the Staff Archive and gazed at the picture of Wade Reilly. He remembered how the latter fed the raptors, how obedient the raptors had been under his orders.

'Hmmm, that guy is made of much tougher stuff than Grady, but there is something about him that I can't place...'

Vic frowned, he had scanned through Wade's bio and info, there was a lot of things that were either unknown or strange. For example, if he is an experienced animal trainer, there would usually be an interview and a more basic evaluation of his skill.

But he just turned up without needing any of those and when he asked some of the staff about Wade, they would stare at him blankly like they had no idea what he is talking about.

Jurassic World knew nothing of where he came from and where he lives. It is like Wade just appeared out of thin air and people accepted him, but when he is out of sight, people would just forget him.

Vic shoved the papers back into it's file and dumped it on a stack of InGen stuff. Calling an InGen personnel over, he told him to go check up on the raptors and act friendly with them. He then finished his morning drink and decided to talk to Wu.

Hoskins was determined to find out who the hell Wade is and where the hell he came from.

Unknown to Vic, Dr Henry Wu was also sitting in his office busy thinking. He was thinking back to the time when they had to move the Indominus into it's own paddock because it was becoming so big. Wu remembered when the scientists came close to the hybrid to sedate it, it was glaring balefully at them though it did not do anything else to resist.

It acted like it was waiting...waiting for what, though? A person?

'That is not possible, the Indominus hates humans...'

Wu sighed, he hated it when he could not figure something out. Suddenly, someone knocked on the window of his office. Looking up and seeing Hoskins, the geneticist invited the soldier in.

They are going to have a really long talk.

* * *

Owen screwed a metal nut on his bike as he continued to think of Wade's mystery dinosaur. He deduced that he or she must be new and just created because of the construction equipment still stashed outside the most likely unfinished paddock.

The raptor trainer sighed as he stood up and went to change tools. The lab was always creating dinosaurs that they believed that can be controlled, he wondered what sort of dinosaur was created and what madness caused Claire to send a rookie to care for one alone.

'Experienced, yes. But only because he watched me train the girls for the first few days and copied my moves.'

Owen sighed again as he returned to his bike and continued fixing it, 'But Wade seemed pretty happy, so the dino in the paddock must be on good terms with him. But what sort of dinosaur is it?

That was what Owen was worried about, if the lab just recklessly tossed DNA around without thinking of the consequences... Well, Owen hated to think what the outcome would be.

He intended to ask Wade as soon as possible about the mystery dinosaur. The crackle of the walkie-talkie snapped Owen out of his thoughts as Lowery spoke, "Control to Owen, you're needed in the raptor pen, some idiot pissed off the raptors...again." Owen groaned, "I'll be right over." before driving off with his half-upgraded bike.

Back at the pen, the four sisters were snarling at the man who infuriated them. The guy from InGen was trying and failing to calm down the pissed and muzzled dinosaurs. Barry was watching with annoyance though it did not show on his face. He let the man try, knowing the raptors are not going to respond to him.

Then the rumbling of a bike engine sounded and Barry turned to see Owen, "Hey, I couldn't get him away from them." Owen nodded and turned off the engine and gave the InGen guy a look, causing him to back off.

"Hey, girls, it's alright."

Owen soothed the raptors gently all the while throwing dirty looks at the InGen guy who said defensively, "I'm here on Hoskins orders,"

"Yeah, well, we don't need you," Owen snapped back after the girls had calmed down. The InGen personnel glared at the raptor trainer and left, obviously ticked off.

Owen sighed for the third time that day, "Where's Wade?"

"Don't know, said he was going to tend to another dino." Barry shrugged as he began heading towards to catwalks.

Owen looked thoughtful, 'Is it that out-of-the-way paddock again? Hmm, better go take a look.' With that, Owen got on his bike and sped off to the still under construction paddock.

* * *

Zach was dozing off in Selena's nest during a break from training while the hybrid herself had gone off somewhere. Zach sighed and shifted a little on the dried leaves as he fell into another level of sleep. Suddenly, a roar shocked him awake and Zach frantically looked around for the source.

'Sounds like Selena...wait, why would she roar? There can't be other people in here... Oh, shoot.'

Zach flipped up and ran as fast as he could to where he last heard the Indominus's roar. Upon arrival, he saw a terrified man scrambling away from the hybrid in desperation. Zach keener eyes noticed the tag on the man which said he was from InGen. Scowling, but knowing he had to save the idiot's life anyway, Zach coughed into his fist to attract his dino's attention. Yes, _his_ dino.

Selena whipped around and snarled angrily at him, mindful of who he is to her, oh, how she just wanted to claw or sign something but with the InGen employee there she could not. She stared Zach in the eye, hoping that he would understand.

But Zach gave her a stern look and shook his head. Selena backed off but used her camouflage to turn her scales blood red to warn the man, said man shivered and scrambled back some more.

"Why are you here? _What_ are you doing here?" Zach demanded, worried that news of the Indominus would be leaked but then remembering that he should be worrying about news of him being Selena's trainer leaked and not the former to InGen.

"I'm here on Hoskins orders to check on it," The employee shuddered. Zach twitched and pulled on his best you-are-going-to-be-screwed glare and said, "You never saw me, you don't know who I am and you ran out the moment you were scared shitless by _her_."

The employee hissed, "Who the hell do you think you are to say that?"

"You don't need to know, oh, you can ask Miss Dearing if you want to, I doubt that she'll answer you though." Zach replied evenly and _that_ shut the employee up. Zach sneaked a quick look at the tag and saw the name 'Nathan' on it, 'I'll remember that,'

"Get out,"

Nathan scrambled out of the paddock quickly and Selena's scales returned back to it's normal white colour. Zach smiled at her and said, "Amazing self-control, 'Lena, well done." Selena crooned softly and puffed out some air, causing Zach to chuckle.

"So...you up for another game?"

Selena's scales shivered in excitement and she signed, 'Can we play Tag?' causing the time traveler to sweat-drop, "Human versus dino? That's not fair, besides, you cover ground a lot more faster than I do,"

Selena rolled her eyes, 'Training for you too, mister. You can out-run even a raptor this way,'

Zach palm-smacked himself, "Okay, since you suggested the game, you lay down the rules," Selena grinned, showing all her teeth and signed, 'The whole paddock is fair game, no tree climbing or hiding and since you have a point, my nest and the rocks where you found me during hide and seek is your special base, okay?'

Zach felt like he wanted to bury himself in the earth since he knew that Selena would flatten him regardless but he still agreed, "Riiight, your call, 'Lena,"

The Indominus started counting down with her claws and Zach realized that she was giving him a head start and the eldest Mitchell ran off as fast as he could. There was some sort of rumble behind him and Zach knew that Selena was laughing at him.

Zach sprinted off to the cluster of rocks, but the hybrid materialized right in front of him, grinning toothily and Zach had to change directions all the while thinking, 'I'm so screwed!'

After a long bout of running and avoiding, Zach was huffing short pants as his heart pumped crazily in his chest. He glanced around nervously and when there was no sign of a hunting dinosaur, Zach let down his guard and leaned against a tree, sighing in relief. Suddenly, a long, thick claw tapped his shoulder and Zach slumped to the ground with a groan.

He glared at the hybrid who was still smiling toothily at him with a 'v' displayed. "Yeah, rub it in my face, why don't you," Zach grumbled as he sprawled out on the ground, "I hate you..."

Selena released another laugh and signed, 'Love you too, mister,' Zach rolled his eyes at that.

* * *

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta and Charlie_

Blue was napping under her tree and she was dreaming of freedom, running through the vast forests and fields of her ancestors. Suddenly, the dream changed and she was still running, though this time with her siblings and a bunch of humans.

'Huh? What's going on?'

Blue realized that she could not stop running and she decided to rely on her senses instead. She felt something strapped to her head and saw that her siblings were likewise strapped by a red blinking camera. There was a strange scent in her nostrils that she recognized but could not recall where she had smelt it before. She heard the alpha's traveling machine rumbling behind her along with other human vehicles.

Suddenly, Blue felt herself stop and she glanced quickly at her siblings who had also done the same. Then they were all sniffing the air, seemingly searching for something. Then, the air shimmered in front of her and a _huge_ dinosaur appeared.

It's scales were white and it looked weird. 'Must be the created dinosaur!' Blue thought, 'The In...In...Indomimus? No, the Indominus! Yes, that's it! I remember Delta trying to pronounce it...'

Then Blue heard it, she heard the hybrid speak to them, and she felt herself responding automatically though the beta was thinking furiously, 'This hybrid must be part raptor! Wait...what?! Attack Owen and the others? Why?' Blue felt herself pivot and glare at the humans before dashing away into the dark forest with her siblings in tow. Far back, she heard the alpha say, "Watch your six, raptors' got a new alpha!"

Blue jerked awake and stared blankly ahead. She remained like this until Charlie approached, "Ummm, Blue? You okay? You've been staring for quite awhile."

Blue felt troubled and she decided to talk to Charlie about the dream. Delta, who overheard the conversation while passing by, decided to join in.

"It can't have been coincidence," Delta mused as the gears turned in her head. Charlie shook her head, "No way, but somehow both dreams are tied. I think Blue's dream should come before mine."

Blue nodded as she thought back to her dream, she wondered when was she going to meet the Indominus as she was certain that the dreams must be some kind of vision, trying to tell them something.

* * *

Owen arrived at Paddock 12 just in time to see a sweaty rookie emerge from it. "Hey, Wade! Over here,"

Zach's head snapped up in surprise, "Owen?"

"Hey, how's it going?"

"Uh, fine, what are you doing here?" Zach felt anxiety rising in his chest, 'Has he found out?'

Owen looked serious, "What sort of dinosaur are you training here?"

'Damn...'

Zach knew from experience that there was no way he could lie in front of the seasoned ex-marine and said slowly, "A...hybrid,"

"What kind of hybrid?"

"I'm not sure...but I'm pretty sure that she's part raptor, part T-Rex, part croc and many more,"

"..."

"Who sent you to do it?"

"Um, au—Miss Dearing," Zach swore inwardly for almost slipping up again. Owen was not stupid, he noticed the slip-up and his eyes narrowed, but he said, "Why? How did this happen?"

Zach winced, knowing there was no backing out of this and told Owen the truth of how he came to train Selena. Despite being suspicious, Owen was happy that Zach treated the Indominus well unlike the idiots back in the lab.

Owen then offered the tired trainer a ride back to his apartment for a shower and Zach gratefully accepted.

_After showering and taking a good meal..._

Zach held sheaf of reports in his hand as he headed of to ACU's office where someone had asked him to pass it to Katashi. As Zach went pass his aunt's office, he heard voices.

"What? Oh, sure, shouldn't be a problem,"

"Claire, I want you to spend time with the boys, not work all day long. That's the reason why Scott even agreed to send the boys there."

Claire sighed and said, "You know I'm up to my arms in work here, Karen..."

"I know, but it doesn't hurt you to spend a little time with the boys..."

Claire was silent then she finally said, "Alright, I'll see to it that I can spare the time for them,"

"Thank you, Claire, I hope you really get the day off,"

The voices faded and Zach hastened his footsteps to ACU office, his heart roiling with emotions and his head with memories best left forgotten.

'It's coming...my past-self and Gray's coming, oh my God...it's time...it's seriously going to happen...'

Zach felt like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. As he knocked on ACU's door, he knew that the second turning point was right up ahead.


	11. Sharing and Planning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach gains a new ally. However, danger is also headed his way...

The next morning, Zach woke up in his apartment with yesterday's anxiety still in him. He could not stop thinking about yesterday's events and decided to take the day off. He also decided to visit Selena in secret who was the only one he can talk to without raising any suspicions. So, the time traveler informed Barry via his phone of his decision and headed off to Paddock 12.

When Zach arrived at Selena's home, he saw Owen leaning against the entrance.

"Owen?"

"When Barry told me that you were skipping today, I figured you would come here, Wade, or whoever you are."

Zach felt the colour draining from his face, "How?" he whispered, shocked as he froze in his footsteps.

Owen simply gazed at him, "I did some thinking yesterday ever since you slipped up. I saw your face, you were scared and seemed to be hiding something. You almost called Claire your 'aunt', right?"

Zach was white, he hurriedly collected his thoughts and said weakly, "Could we talk inside?"

Owen studied his face before nodding and went in with Zach behind him. Zach led Owen to the line in the ground and called out for Selena who came with her teeth bared minutes later.

"Easy, Selena, easy. This is Owen Grady and he is the raptor trainer I told you about."

The Indominus hissed but slowly started sniffing at Owen, memorizing his scent. Owen remained still as the hybrid sniffed about while he maintained eye contact. Selena huffed and lumbered back to her nest to which Zach and Owen followed.

After settling down with Selena watching over them, Zach decided to start the long story.

"My name is Zachary Mitchell and as you guessed, Claire _is_ my aunt. I'm from the future where crap happened and the park closed down. It involves Selena and InGen's crazy plans—"

"Wait, how does it involve Selena? Or even InGen for that matter?"

"InGen had something nasty planned all this time. Anyway, on Selena's part, it was improper treatment and social problems that caused her rampage on the Isla."

Owen nodded thoughtfully as he tried to visualize the future. "What of my girls? Will they be involved?"

Zach winced and told the raptor trainer of all that had happened, from top to bottom and the ex-marine listened intently. When Zach was done, Owen was thinking deeply, he then said, "So...Selena understands this and has agreed to help you?"

Hearing this, the hybrid carved her response into the earth: "Yes," Owen whistled in awe, it was one thing to hear about Selena's communicating abilities and another to see it in person. He then offered, "Do you want me to help in the training or... you know, we could work together."

Zach could not believe his ears, Owen Grady, alpha of the Raptor Squad, help him? Working together with him would mean easing some of the burden of his shoulders, fulfilling his promise to Future Owen and other things.

_'Gray...'_

"Yeah, you could teach her so she can get more familiar with you."

Owen looked at the hybrid with a smile on his face and said, "Maybe I can get the girls here to meet up with Selena. Since she's part raptor, they could communicate easily." Zach nodded in agreement to this.

"Well... maybe you can teach her how to differentiate between InGen employees and normal ones? She definitely hates InGen but I'm afraid she might also accidentally kill off someone else."

Selena sniffed and clawed into the earth: "Such little faith in me..." causing the two humans to laugh. Selena imperiously turned her head away while making her white scales shiver a little to show her annoyance. Owen looked around and picked up a stick lying near the nest and started drawing on the earth. Zach looked curiously at what Owen was drawing and realized that it was InGen's logo.

"See this? This is the symbol for InGen."

Owen tapped the picture on the ground whereas Selena peered at it. "They usually have that on their clothes or name tags," Zach supplied helpfully and Selena gave the okay sign. Owen then explained about the vehicles that InGen owned and told Selena not to blindly attack them because there might be non-InGen personnel inside.

Both trainers spent a long time teaching Selena how to differentiate between InGen and Jurassic World employees until it was time for lunch and they had to leave. The hybrid dinosaur watched them silently as they left, mind reeling with all the information that she had received straight from the beginning since meeting Zach. She slowly began to piece everything together to form a plan.

A plan that will cause InGen to crash...right down into a deep chasm. But Selena does not know that trouble was right up ahead.

* * *

Vic was looking at the new prototype raptors that Wu just created with fascination. They were almost as huge as Owen's raptors due to Wu's extra meddling with the genes: the perfect killing machines on a battlefield.

Vic only saw the raptors, he did not see his men struggling with them.

"Sir! They're being unresponsive to us!"

That point was supported with a series of barks and snarls ripping free of the raptors' throat as they trashed in their restraints. Vic sighed as he finally turned his attention to his men who were trying to calm down the dinosaurs without getting their fingers bitten off.

Wu, who was present, looked thoughtful, "If nobody can control them... Well, two people can."

Vic smiled, "Ah, Owen and Wade."

Wu nodded as his eyes were still fixed on _his_ creations, his beautiful masterpieces, "Owen would never work for you though, he is very protective of his morals regarding his, ah, _girls_."

Vic rolled his eyes, "Obviously, so that leaves Wade," he paused, "And only him... Would he work for us though?"

Wu snorted, "Of course not, we'll just have to force him, he's not Grady. And no one would notice, you told me that people just sort of forget him when he's out of sight, right?"

Vic's eyes began to glint, "Yes, indeed, well..." the head of InGen turned to a sullen looking employee who was looking at the dinosaurs with resentment and said, "Nathan, you have a job,"

Said man turned to his boss reluctantly and said, "I want nothing to do with stupid dinosaurs."

Hoskins knew something happened to Nathan to make him this pissed and he had a fair guess on what it was, "It has nothing to do with dinosaurs, directly, that is."

Nathan frowned, "Then what?"

"I want you to bring Wade to me, he's the only one who can deal with those creatures anyway."

Nathan smiled darkly, he had been getting so uptight about what happened yesterday and still have not gotten over it, of _course_ he is eager to take revenge, "Done, when do you need him?"

Wu chuckled at Nathan's eagerness while Vic replied, "As soon as you can make it," Nathan smiled and left to prepare, "Might take a few days!" he called back and Hoskins said, "Don't take long!"

"Well, problem solved," The geneticist said with a smile as he watched Hoskins leave for his office.

* * *

Zach was in the office area helping ACU stack up reports when he heard Claire's voice.

"What? You changed the date? Why? I still have tons of work here to do, we have a new exhibit—"

_"I'm sorry, Claire, but the kids are very excited to see you and we couldn't change their minds."_

"Karen... Well, in that case, is it okay if I sent my assistant to show them around? I will see them at night in their hotel room."

_"... Alright, make sure you do, Gray's been rattling off about dinosaurs ever since we told him about Jurassic World."_

Zach winced as he heard the familiar voice of his mother laughing about Gray's dinosaur obsession. Oh, how he _missed_ his mother.

"You okay, Wade?"

Zach jumped a little as he looked at Brian who was looking at him with curiosity and concern, "Yeah, I'm fine, just dozed off for a bit." Zach smiled quickly as he finished the last stack of his share. "Maybe you should rest up, being a trainer is tiring after all." Zach forced a smile, "Uh, sure! See you guys whenever."

Brian nodded and the time traveler began to leave the Innovation Center, though he purposely brushed by Claire as he left.

"Wade!"

Pretending to be surprised, Zach spun around, "Yes, Miss Dearing?"

"I'm just letting you know that my nephews are coming over in four days time and I will have Zara watching them. I will try to get her to clear her schedule but if she's is still unavailable, I'd like you to help watch over them."

Zach could not stop the cold sweat that traveled down his spine, "Sure, no problem." 'NO! Big problem, past-self is gonna wonder why this worker looks like him! Zara, you'd better be available!' With another forced smile, Zach took his leave, mind spinning furiously as he did.

Trying to calm himself down, Zach decided to visit the raptors and collect his thoughts.

* * *

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie_

In the raptor pen, the dinosaurs were having a splash, as in, a bath.

"Here, girl, easy."

Owen casually hosed down the raptors with a gentle flow of water as they shook and flicked their tails about to get rid of excess water. Blue did not particularly like water and kept shifting around, causing Owen to try to calm her down.

Blue hissed, "I hate the damn water!"

Delta rolled her eyes and allowed the water to run down her hide, "Relax, Blue... It's refreshing when you spend day after day in a hot island..." She flicked her tail playfully, sending a spray towards Charlie who growled in exasperation for she had just finished shaking herself free from water.

Echo, who seemed to be in an extremely good mood today, actually opened her jaws and lazily drank the water flowing from the hose, emitting some sort of gargling noise from the back of her throat.

"Ewww, Echo, gross!"

"Shut up, Charlie."

Echo smirked as she suddenly spat out a little remainder of water from her jaws... right at a clean Delta.

"ECHO!"

Owen sweat dropped as he washed Charlie who seemed to be snickering at the mad chase that had begun. Blue looked like she was going to smash her head into a tree as she edged away to avoid the mess that was likely to happen.

"You little...! Get back here! I'm gonna bury you in the hot sticky mud!"

Delta was beyond pissed, she just got clean! Refreshed! And a certain sister just had to ruin everything and make her get another wash down. Like Blue, Delta was not that fond of water either, but she could tolerate it for a short while. And one bath was enough, not two!

Blue suddenly caught hold of a familiar scent, she panned her gazed to the direction of the gates and saw a nerve-wracked Wade come through. The beta watched Owen and Wade exchange a few words as Wade calmed her sisters down and Owen cleaned Delta again.

After Owen left, Wade remained and helped the four raptors settle down for the day. As he did, he spoke to them, telling them everything he told Selena in a quieter tone since there could be eavesdroppers hanging around. Blue, Delta and Charlie listened intently while Echo struggled to keep up because she was sleepy.

As all this was happening, no one noticed a pair of vengeful eyes fixed on Wade. Nathan smirked before melting into the shadows, he knew just the right time to take him.

_Time skip..._

Echo was already snoring while the other three stayed awake.

"So, our dreams are actually visions of the future? I can't believe it."

Charlie felt scared as she recalled the dream of her getting blown up. Blue was quiet as she thought it through, "We must meet up with Selena, I don't know how, but we must."

Delta agreed with Blue and said, "I could try to convince Owen, he is the only one other than Zach who can actually help get us to Paddock 12."

The three raptors came to a silent agreement and Blue said, "Charlie, tell Echo about everything tomorrow morning, will you? Right now, we should get some sleep,"

Charlie nodded her assent and they went to sleep.


	12. Taken, Chaos Reigns (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything spirals out of control.

Zach was slightly jittery as he made his way towards Paddock 12 for today was the day that the past brothers arrived. Zach entered the greens and saw Selena waiting for him patiently, with a message carved on the ground.

_So, you will be going to deal with your brothers while I try not to let history happen and rampage. InGen has been surprisingly quiet though, so watch out for them, okay? I will be waiting here for everything to pass, and yeah, try not to kill anyone. Good luck._

Zach smiled wryly, "Yeah, thanks a lot. I'll try to keep everything down and keep a low profile alright?" Selena nuzzled him and Zach quickly made his way back to the raptor pen. When he arrived, Barry and Owen were busy with their usual training process on the catwalks and Zach became a bystander.

After Owen succeeded getting the raptors to obey his commands, Hoskins appeared and Zach quickly hid himself in the shadows. He watched Hoskins rattle on about his field trip test and how Owen angrily rebuffed him in return. Zach peered carefully down from the catwalks as Owen and Hoskins continued their argument.

"Pig lose! Pig lose!"

Zach's head snapped up and saw the new guy Owen had told him about, Colby Boothman, try to catch the frantic pink animal. Only to get pulled down into the pen by one of the raptors as it caught the pig and ran off. The raptors turned their heads towards the young trainer and began to pace slowly towards him, all four in attack mode.

"Shit,"

Owen slammed the button that raised the gate and analyzed the situation with a sharp eye. Knowing there was not much time, he crawled under the gate and got in front of his girls while Barry was yelling, "Owen, no!"

Knowing what happened from Future Owen telling him, Zach decided to stay in the shadows and watch everything unfold. After Hoskins and Barry had left, Zach went down.

Owen was still grumbling as he packed up when he noticed Zach, "Oh, hey, you sort of disappeared when Hoskins came."

"I don't trust that guy,"

"Hmm, good point."

"You're leaving so soon?"

"Yeah, job's done, and I gotta fix up my bike, it looked like it was gonna crash earlier."

"So, back to your...bungalow."

Owen laughed and clapped Zach on the shoulder as he left, leaving Zach alone in the pen's control room. Zach glanced at the raptors who are staring at him as he brushed his fingers across the controls and checked over everything.

All of a sudden, Blue released a shrill screech, causing Zach to spin around, a little too late as something knocked particularly hard on the back of his neck and the time traveler was greeted by darkness.

* * *

_Velociraptors - Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie_

Blue stared furiously at the man who was dragging Zach away. How dare he attack a pack-friend! Still fuming, Blue did not notice her pack scattering. Delta's sharp eyes noticed something on the hay and she practically smashed her head against the gates just to get a closer look.

It was a tag, Zach's work tag.

Charlie was doing a run around the pen to look for a way out, if there was any other than the panel to the pig pen. Echo was examining a nail in the wall, wondering if she could actually dig it out with her claw and loosen a section of the bars and get out that way.

Blue was thinking furiously, the pack needed to get to Owen but he was so far away! Barry was out of the question for he did not understand them as well as Owen did. While Blue was still thinking, the rest of the pack regrouped and waited for Blue to return to reality.

When Blue snapped out of it, Charlie told her that there was no way out and Echo told her about the nails. Delta then told her about the tag and Blue returned to the depths of her thoughts.

"First things first, we need some proof before getting help, we need Zach's work tag."

"Uhhh, yeah, and how are we gonna get it?"

"Even if we do get it, how are we going to get out?"

"Even if we got out, how are we going to make our way around? We don't even know the island that well."

"Even if we could navigate our way around, how are we going to communicate with anyone?

Blue screeched again, "STOP! One problem at a time, we'll worry about the others later, for now we need the tag, can anyone get it?"

Silence greeted the beta as the sisters looked at one another until Delta broke it and said, "I'll try,"

"Good,"

"Question, our arms are...y'know, short. So, how are we..."

Delta snapped off a tough looking branch from a nearby tree and padded back to the gate, causing Echo who spoke earlier to snap her jaws shut. The sisters watched with nervousness as Delta pinched the forked branch in between her claws and stuck it out from the bars of the gate. She carefully poked at the tag, trying to push it to her but it was not that easy.

"Come on..." Charlie felt jumpy as her sister continued to poke and prod at the tag.

"I'm going to check out the nails again," Echo informed the three raptors before heading back to the back of the pen and began digging her claw into the metal, trying to hook her claw around the nail and pull it out.

Delta hissed as the tag simply got pushed around in place, making no sign of improvement. Charlie then said, "Try to use the forked part," to which Delta instantly tried. Blue shifted around as she watched Delta work. Delta grinned when she successfully fixed the tag securely in between the forked part and slowly began pulling the branch back in.

Echo had created several new dents in the metal through her effort to loosen a nail. Growling in frustration, she barked, "Hey, Charlie, a little help over here?"

"YES!"

Echo jumped, 'What the hell?' She turned around and saw the branch abandoned on the ground and the tag held gingerly between Delta's jaws. Charlie's tail was swinging in excitement at her sister's success.

"Yay, whatever, can we find a way out of this damn cage now?"

Charlie looked sheepish while Blue caught sight of the bolts and nuts that secured the pen's bars to the walls. "How about the screwy-things instead? They might be easier."

Echo looked at said "screwy-things" and felt like claw-palming herself, "Right..." and set to work.

Far away at the monorail station, a bored teen watched as his excited younger brother sprinted down the steps of the station while their caretaker, Zara Young followed behind.

* * *

_Indominus Rex -_ _Selena_

Selena glared at the observatory through the thick leaves as Claire and Masrani tried to get a good look at her. "It's white, you never told me it was white."

'IT? "It" has a name!' Selena released a low huff.

"Think it'll scare the kids?"

"The kids...this is gonna give them nightmares."

"Is that...good?"

"It's fantastic,"

Throughout this conversation, Selena continued to snap and break some leaves and branches, playing out her part.

And giving them a good look at her eye as she blinked nice and slow.

After the two humans left, Selena also turned to leave when sharp pain invaded her consciousness. Selena almost knocked down a good number of trees from a stumble before regaining her balance.

The hybrid closed her eyes and focused on the pain, trying to find out the cause of it. Her search led her down a link and that link led her down a bond.

Not just any bond, the bond she shared with Zachary Mitchell.

Selena released a roar of distress, she knew that Zach was in trouble but she did not know what. 'InGen! It has to be them!' With that thought, Selena crashed through the greens and arrived at the main gate. Knowing from past experience that the gate would not budge, she began clawing desperately at the wall, trying to climb out.

Selena began an internal battle with her consciousness.

'Need to get out!'

_'There's no way out,'_

'There must be!'

_'Calm down, we need to think this through,'_

Selena growled in frustration, 'Think? There's no time! Zach's in trouble, I need to find him!'

_'Yeah, and how are you going to do that when you're this upset?'_

Selena began to calm down and she began to think, a light went off in her head and she exclaimed, 'We wait for Owen and Claire to arrive, we do it like how Zach told us we did it in the past!'

_'That's right, remember to grab Owen though, you'll need his help, the raptors are also good help.'_

'Will we need to find the past brothers?'

_'That would be a good idea too.'_

Selena returned to the foliage and decided to wait, every senses on alert.

* * *

Zach's eyes slowly adjusted to the dark lightning of wherever he was as he tried to shake off the drowsiness. He then realized that his wrists were tied together.

"Welcome, Wade Reilly,"

Zach's looked up to see the head of InGen smiling at him with Nathan standing behind him.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing much, we just want you to train our raptors,"

Nathan came over and roughly jerked Zach to his feet and pushed him towards the containment area where there were 10 raptors snarling and growling in their restraints.

"So they can become your weapons? That's not going to work, and I'm not going to do it."

Nathan punched Zach in the gut and kicked his legs, causing him to fall while Vic lazily clicked off the safety of a pistol and pressed the barrel against Zach's head, "You don't have a choice Reilly, you either do this...or die. No one will remember you either, so I've found."

Zach was still gasping from the punch earlier as Vic pressed the pistol down harder into his scalp.

"Fine,"

Hoskins pulled back and Nathan pulled him up, "Good,"

"When do I start?"

"Quite eager are we? You start now,"

Zach gritted his teeth as Nathan freed his wrists and pushed him into the containment area and locked him in. The time traveler looked at all the raptors who were all staring at him with bloodthirsty eyes.

"I'm so screwed."

* * *

_Velociraptors and Indominus Rex - Blue, Delta, Echo, Charlie and Selena_

The Raptor Squad minus One sneaked their way around the human crowds as they tried to find their way through to Paddock 12. There were a number of times when the humans nearly spotted them, but true to their name, the 'Swift Thief', they avoided detection and somehow managed to steal a park map from the info counter miraculously without being seen.

The four sisters were now currently hiding in the forest behind the Innovation Center as they pored over the map, of course human words meant nothing to them, but they could understand the symbols.

"So, where would a newly created hybrid dinosaur be located?" Charlie looked at the splash of colours on the map as Delta's claw moved over the symbols.

"I don't know, somewhere the humans can't see, I suppose. They always like to think that they are in control, the fools." Echo snorted. At Echo's words, a light went off in Blue's head, "I know! You see this yellow line here? I've heard the human at the small booth say that it's the restricted area, Selena would most likely be here."

"Nice one, Blue!"

The raptors' heads snapped up at the sound of an announcement, " _All guests, please be informed that the north side of the park is currently shut down and unavailable for tour due to technical problems. Please proceed to the Innovation Center or anywhere else on the south side of the park. The problem will be solved as soon as possible, we are sorry for any inconvenience caused. Have a good day on Isla Nublar, thank you._

Blue smirked, "Knew it, let's go!"

Charlie picked up the map with her jaws as they ran towards the general direction of the restricted area. "Yo, Delta! You still have the tag?" Echo glanced back at her green-streaked sister, "Yeah!"

The raptors ran on for quite awhile when Blue picked up the scent of blood...and the smell of their alpha. "This way!"

The four sisters barreled through the greens and finally arrived at the half finished paddock. They looked upon the massive building and saw the main gate was ruined as the Indominus Rex pushed through.

"ALPHA!"

Blue screeched in shock when she caught sight of Owen in the great claws of the Indominus Rex. Echo barked furiously and was about to lunge when the hybrid dinosaur spoke in their language, "Wait!"

Blue hissed, "What are you? How can you speak our language? Why do you have our alpha in your claws? Let him go!"

"No time! I need your help! Zach's been taken—"

Blue cut Selena off when she heard that, "Let's go somewhere safe where we can talk, lead on!"

Selena turned and headed off into the deep forest with the raptors following close behind.

_Control Room..._

"Holy shit..."

Lowery stared blankly at the screen as Owen was hauled off by the hybrid dinosaur and the supervisor was injured, the telephone was held with slack in his hand. Vivian's mouth was hanging open in horror while the CEO of the park opened and closed his mouth wordlessly.

_"Somebody talk to me! What is happening?!"_

Claire was ignored as the occupants of the Control Room stared blankly at the giant screen.

"Dude, no way!"

Masrani jerked back to reality at the words of a fellow worker and immediately ordered the ACU team to follow him while leaving to prep his helicopter. Vivian followed behind with worry since Masrani was not exactly a good copter driver. In a few moments, Masrani was off, armed with a machine gun.

* * *

_The Mitchell Brothers - Gray and Zachary_

"Do you think that we should turn back?"

"Nah, it'll be fine, let's just keep going."

"But they told us to go back,"

"It's fine, Gray, let's just explore a little more, alright?"

"Okay..."

The gyrosphere moved on and on, going through the vast fields and many dinosaurs. That is when they saw the gate labelled 'Restricted Area: Do Not Enter' and decided to go in, though Gray looked on with a lot of nervousness.

Zach carefully maneuvered the gyrosphere through the greens and came to a clearing where four ankylosaurus were grazing peacefully.

"There, see? I told you, nothing but a close-up look with four...dinosauruses."

"Ankylosaurus, we shouldn't be here, and there's five dinosaurs."

"Are you supposed to be a genius or something? Look, one, two, three...four."

Gray raised a somewhat shaky hand and pointed at the reflective glass of the gyrosphere and whispered, "Five,"

Zach froze up, then they slowly turned around and saw a dinosaur's silhouette, and continued to stare until it opened it's massive jaws and roared.

"Move!"

Zach desperately pushed the joystick forward and tried to get out of range. But a whip of an ankylosaurus's tail sent the gyrosphere spinning like crazy and it banged into trees, dinosaurs and repeated the process over and over again.

The dinosaur stormed forward and aimed for the round human transport, "Zach! Do something!"

"Dude, I'm trying! But not when it's—ugh!"

The gyrosphere smashed into a tree and stopped moving, though electricity was beginning to crackle. The gyrosphere was also hanging upside down and Zach's phone fell out of his pocket and hit the top of the glass.

Zach reached desperately for his vibrating phone, needing to answer the call from his aunt but failed to since he was still strapped to the seat.

"ZACH!"

The teen looked up, just in time to see the dinosaur's jaws close over the sphere and he screamed with his brother.

Then, the dinosaur dropped them. _And began carving a message into the ground._

I need your help, there isn't time to explain anything, but I can take you to your aunt and a trainer to give you two a gist on what's going on.

The brothers looked at each other, then back at the dinosaur. And they both yelled in fear as it picked up the gyrosphere and began to smash it against a tree in an effort to free the brothers from inside.

* * *


	13. Taken, Chaos Reigns (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Future-Zach Rescue Team...assemble!

_Indominus Rex and Humans - Selena, Owen Grady, Claire Dearing and the Mitchell Brothers_

The two workers drove towards the Gyrosphere Valley. Having filled Claire in on what is happening, they decided to search her nephews from this time before planning out a rescue for her future nephew.

Needless to say, Claire was pissed as hell when she heard that every scientist in the lab was working for InGen. Owen had to hide his laugh at his ex's reaction and concentrate on driving unless he wanted to be fried.

"C'mon, pick up, pick up,"

Owen glanced at the operations manager and said, "You know Selena won't kill them right?"

Claire shot him a look and focused on the call, "Pick up, pick up, pick up..."

Owen rolled his eyes and carried on driving, and came to a stop when they arrived at the Valley. Owen grabbed his gun and strode out to the edge of a slope which leads down into the valley. Unlike last time, where Zach told him all the Apatosaurus's were dead, the valley was filled with peaceful leaf munching Apatosaurus.

The two of them slowly made their way down, not wanting to startle the dinosaurs. "Are you sure she's here?" Claire looked around nervously, "Positive," Owen glanced around the whole place.

Suddenly, the cracking noises of something big moving in the trees startled them. Owen, out of his old marine habits, automatically raised his gun and aimed it in the direction of where the sounds were coming from.

Then, the Indominus Rex emerged from the thickets with her two passengers sitting on her head, causing the herbivores in the field to leave out of self-defence. She signed to Owen: "You sure you want to shoot me?"

Owen sighed in relief, "Old marine reflexes," and lowered his gun.

Selena then deposited the two boy on the ground and Gray rushed towards his aunt who also did the same and cried out in relief, Zach also hugged Claire, still a little ruffled from the encounter with Selena.

"So what's going on? How can a dinosaur sign language and write?"

"Owen, you tell them,"

The ex marine shot his old flame a look and Claire gave him a super sweet smile. Rolling his eyes, Owen began the story, from top to bottom.

* * *

Zach exhaled and slumped to the ground in relief. He had finally gotten all 10 raptors to calm down. But all were still quite hostile. He sincerely hoped that his dinosaur friends, Owen, his aunt and the brothers would seriously think of something before he died under the jaws of a weaponized raptor.

Sighing, the time traveler got up and was about to start from Raptor 1 to 10 all over again when he realized he was missing something.

"Naturally,"

Zach sighed for about the umpteenth time that day and looked at all 10 raptors, trying to determine which was the alpha.

He noticed one on the far right that seemed to be the most pissed and slowly approached it. "Hey, it's fine, I'm not like the others, I won't hurt you." Zach slowly stretched out his hand and angled it to the side so that he could touch the raptor's face.

The raptor glared at him balefully but allowed him to touch it's face. It could not do much anyways since it's practically locked up from top to toe. Zach ignored the other raptors and began focusing on the alpha raptor. It was hard work though, since the raptor refused to cooperate.

"Having fun?"

Zach spun around and retracted his hand and saw Dr Henry Wu standing there with a dry smile on his face.

"I _so_ knew you were in on it with InGen,"

Wu only laughed, "They made a deal with me,"

"Sure they did, they probably won't fulfill it though,"

Wu shot the trainer a look, "And how do you know that?"

Zach shrugged, "InGen isn't that trustworthy."

"I can make my own decisions, thank you very much."

Silence fell between the two humans as Zach began to think about the raptors, how he could train them for _himself_ instead, and escape that way.

"Are they all...y'know, female?"

Wu glanced at his masterpieces, "Yes, why?"

"Just needed to know, since I'm supposed to be training them and all that."

The geneticist snickered, "You aren't going to _name_ them are you?"

Zach held his head high, "That's _my_ business, when I'm done training with them, you idiots can continue to call them an 'it', and I won't even complain."

Wu shook his head with a smile, "You really are different from Grady, he would never let us call a dinosaur 'it'," he stepped up to the glass separating the two and said, "Just a bit of advice, Wade, don't get too attached to them like Owen did to his raptors, otherwise you may regret it."

"I'm not, I'm just doing this to get out of this situation and to at least tell which raptor is which. I mean, seriously, I can't go around calling them Raptor 1 to 10 now, can I?"

Wu sighed and said, "You do what you do best, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to help you."

" _Help_ me? More like you got me into this, you were the one who 'recommended' me to Hoskins, didn't you?"

Wu gave Zach a wry smile, "Don't get me wrong, I only gave him the idea, I thought he was going to pick Owen, I didn't expect him to pick you."

"Shut up,"

Wu shrugged and said, "Is there anything else you need?"

"As if you could give me my freedom," Zach snorted, "Yeah, right. But there _is_ something I do need,"

Wu raised and eyebrow, "And what would that be?"

"I want the files on all 10 of them,"

Wu laughed, "I sort of expected you to ask that, here." he pushed the file which contained all data on the 10 raptors under the glass door to the trainer and left.

Zach twitched, "Damn jerk," and flipped through the papers.

All the raptors were 'printed' with the same genetic code, which means that there isn't much difference with their appearances. All of them were like Delta, except more green and typical raptor looking, only the alpha had a small white star on her forehead.

"Hmm, naming time, I guess."

Zach mulled in his thoughts and came up with some names he found suitable.

Alpha: Pearl

Raptor 1: Hazel

Raptor 2: Miranda

Raptor 3: Crystal

Raptor 4: Alexis

Raptor 5: Katelyn

Raptor 6: Erica

Raptor 7: Leslie

Raptor 8: Stephanie

Raptor 9: Tracy

Zach tossed the file lazily to one side and walked up to Pearl, "Hey, Pearl, can I call you Pearl?"

Pearl's eye blinked and her lips closed over her teeth as she stared at Zach, with a more curious air around her than hostile. Zach grinned, it was like Selena all over again, except this time with raptors. Oh, his plan was so in motion.

* * *

_Velociraptors, Indominus Rex and Humans - Blue, Delta, Echo, Charlie, Selena, Owen Grady, Claire Dearing and the Mitchell Brothers_

The four sisters were currently making their way to the Gyrosphere Valley after completing Owen's order of scoping out InGen's base. They felt really nervous ever since catching Zach's scent and the scent of 10 new raptors though in Echo's case she was more annoyed than nervous.

"I can't believe that they went and created 10 new raptors!"

"It's really crazy isn't it?"

"I hope Zach is okay,"

Blue said nothing, if Zach is successful, the new raptors may be their allies, if not, then they will be enemies. The situation was just too horrible, not that the beta doubted her pack's ability to fight off 10 newly born raptors. Just that if InGen successfully trained the 10 into weapons with Zach's unwilling help, it would be too hard for even her skilled sisters to fight back.

Upon arrival, the sisters saw that the brothers looked shocked and scared. They heard Gray saying, "I _died?_ I actually _died_?"

Zach stared blankly at his little brother: okay, he's annoying but he would not be able to live without his little brother. Zach groaned and buried his face in his hands, he totally understood how his future self felt. And he feared for his future self since InGen could probably kill him and get away with it.

"I'm such a prick, god dammit Gray, I'm so sorry." Zach hugged his little brother with trembling hands, eliciting a smile from Claire, Owen and Selena. Though Selena's smile looked a little weird.

'Selena, we found something _really_ horrible.'

The Indominus lifted her head and looked at the approaching Blue, 'What? Is Zach okay?'

'Tell them that InGen had the doctor create 10 raptors for weapons and that Zach's stuck with training them. Seriously, even I don't know how to get him out of that.'

Selena's scales rippled in distress, causing the four humans to look at her. She signed the message to them and Owen could not help but curse. Claire's mouth fell open in shock and the brothers paled.

Owen turned to his girls and asked, "Is that true? You smelt them?"

Blue cocked her head in affirmation and the raptors settled themselves on the ground right next to the Indominus, or so they thought.

Owen grumbled to himself in annoyance when Claire's phone rang, alerting everyone.

"Lowery? What is it?"

_"Masrani's gone commando in his copter trying to find the Indominus and ACU is also scanning the ground. But...why are you, Owen and two guys with...four raptors?"_

'Damn, I forgot the active cameras,' "It's a long story Lowery and there isn't time to explain, tell Vivian to put me through to Masrani now."

Lowery groaned from the other end and did as he was told. Claire gestured to them to take cover in the restricted area and realized that Selena was missing.

Owen also seemed to realized the problem and palm-smacked himself, cursing, "She's probably ran off to InGen's base,"

"And risk exposure? Oh no," Zach muttered.

Claire groaned, "I'll drive myself back to Control, Owen, you, the kids and the raptors _stop_ Selena, and I don't care how you do it!" she ran up the slope back to the jeep. Owen sighed and looked at his girls, "Do you mind carrying the boys and me?"

Blue headbutted her alpha and crouched, Echo and Charlie did the same. Owen climbed onto Blue while Zach and Gray respectively climbed onto Echo and Charlie. Delta, being the lightest now, screeched and led the way.

* * *

_Indominus Rex - Selena_

'I am so going to kill those people!'

She charged blindly through, not caring if the humans saw her. She charged right under the monorail track, causing the humans arriving at the Gyrosphere station to gasp and cry out in shock though some of the kids were excited to see a better looking "T-Rex".

Selena took the easy way. She ran on the road, not caring about the world around her but her inner turmoil. This resulted in her going to Main Street and causing the tourists to scream and run and basically create a lot of chaos not that she cared.

A few of the park security tried to bring her down but Selena simply used her tail and sent them flying. She looked upon the Innovation Center and decided not to go there. Selena roared in frustration since the Main Street was so packed with humans and their buildings that she had no room to maneuver unless she really wanted to hurt someone.

'Selena! Come back! You can't just barge in like that! We need a plan! And that's when all the streets are clear of humans! Come back, you're causing a scene!'

Selena growled, 'I don't care! I won't stop until I've rescued Zach!'

'You think you're the only one?! You think Owen, the past brothers and Claire doesn't want to rescue him too? Don't be selfish Selena, come back! If InGen comes out—'

Selena snarled, 'Then I'll kill every single one of them, Blue! I don't care!'

'They created you Selena, they know everything about you, your weakness, strengths, everything. They'd kill you easily. True, we're dinosaurs, we are strong and we can kill humans recklessly if we wanted to. But your actions will cause a lot of mayhem and the park might close down and the human authorities will kill us all, deeming us dangerous, crazed. Do you want that?'

Selena stood still, thinking through Blue's words. 'Fine,' the hybrid grudgingly relented, 'Tonight, then,' and marched back into the forest where the raptors plus three humans were waiting for her.

They then began the long trek back to the restricted area, knowing that place is far and hard to reach by humans.

_Meanwhile, at the empty raptor pen..._

Barry stared blankly at the bolts and nuts that were scattered over the dried grass, along with the loose section of bars. He shook his head, amused, "Those girls are so damn smart."

He collected the bolts and nuts and leaned the bars against the pen wall and called his partner.

"Owen? The girls are gone—"

_"Yeah, I know, they're with me now, surprised that they even went AWOL. I'm still wondering how they got out though."_

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you,"

_"Nah, I'll think I'll catch up,"_

"Fine, one of them figured out how to work bolts and nuts, loosened a section of bars and escaped that way."

Laughter erupted from the other end and Barry could not help but smile as well. _"I_ so _did not expect them to do that,"_

Barry then turned serious, "So, what happened?"

_"InGen's got Wade, they're going to make him train their raptors and eventually turn them into weapons, there's no telling if Wade will survive after this. Oh, by the way, there are 10 new raptors."_

Barry spluttered some profanities and said, "So, what are you going to do?"

_"I'm going to wait until night time when all the tourists are gone and launch an attack plan. If I can come up with one, that is."_

Barry looked grim, "Good luck," and hung up.


	14. InGen or Jurassic World?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new raptors are faced with a choice.

_The 10 New Raptors - Pearl, Hazel, Miranda, Crystal, Alexis, Katelyn, Erica, Leslie, Stephanie and Tracy_

Pearl twisted irritably in her restraints to the best of her ability albeit failing. She had been trapped like this for a very long time and she is starting to feel numb and the urge to move just kept growing. Releasing a muffled sigh, Pearl decided to ignore the urge and just stay still.

The kind human trainer had been forcefully taken away by the bad humans, and Pearl felt somewhat lonely without him.

One of her sisters, newly named Crystal, spoke in a muffled tone due to the thing clamping their jaws shut, "Sister! You can't be seriously trusting the humans, can you?"

Leslie spoke up, "Especially that human who was here earlier,"

Pearl rolled her eyes, "I can differentiate good and evil, sisters, that human does not seem so bad."

"Trick! It's all a trick! Have you forgotten how humans treated us?! They want to use us! And the human before was no different!"

After Miranda's outburst, a cacophony of muffled protests erupted from the others, only the youngest, Tracy, remained silent, blinking at her sisters who were all set on defining humans as "evil" and "bad".

Pearl twitched and growled, "SILENCE!"

The others shut up immediately. Panning her gaze to Tracy, Pearl asked, "What are _your_ thoughts, Tracy?"

The youngest stayed silent, mulling in her thoughts, "While the rest of you were too busy fighting back against the humans, I actually paid attention to everything."

"Huh, I thought you didn't want to escape," Katelyn snorted, Tracy's brows furrowed in anger but she remained composed, "Someone has to focus instead of letting their emotions run away with them." she replied coolly causing the older raptors to hiss and snarl with anger.

Pearl sighed, and blinked at Tracy for her to continue.

Tracy rolled her eyes and said, "I heard the alpha of this particular human pack say to the trainer earlier that he will either train us or die. And the trainer did so, reluctantly, I might add."

"Wait, you mean there are more humans out there?" Stephanie was surprised, "Yeah, judging from the way the alpha spoke," Tracy agreed.

Pearl sighed, "I'm disappointed in all of you, how can the youngest of us all notice so much while we couldn't? Myself included, perhaps I should pass the title of alpha to you."

Tracy hissed in surprise and refusal, "No, sister, I am not fit to be alpha, I can never take your place, I am not fit to lead. Besides, the human has already established a bond with you. From the way he spoke to you, he knows you're alpha, he is trying to establish the bond in such a way that you will acknowledge him as a pack alpha or pack friend."

Hazel, who had begun thinking ever since Tracy's harsh words of truth, said, "We are all reluctant to be the humans' playthings, so is the trainer, I caught the scent of five other dinosaurs on him, four of them belonged to our kind, it was mixed with other human scents. Perhaps if we work together, we may escape the fate of being the humans' weapons?"

Erica grunted in approval, "Well said, I say we follow the trainer,"

Pearl looked thoughtful, "In that case, we all must agree that I will be the beta, and he, the alpha. Are there any objections?"

No one said a word, though Miranda looked a little disgruntled.

"None? Good, when he comes back in, I will try to pass on the message to him."

* * *

_Dinosaurs and Humans - Indominus Rex, Velociraptors, Owen Grady and the Mitchell Brothers_

Night was gradually falling over Isla Nublar, most of the tourists went home, while some remained in the Hilton Isla Nublar Resort as part of their package tour, enjoying whatever luxury the staff offered them.

Eight figures were sitting silently in the darkening forest as they waited for their chance. Owen wracked his brain for a plan as the boys huddled together for warmth. Selena was as still as a statue, great eyes fixed on InGen's base with a kind of anger only she could ever understand. The raptors were slowly beginning to drift off into dreamland as their eyelids grew heavier.

Owen recalled the other timeline Future Zach lived in, how his girls rampaged with Selena at one point. He wondered if he could trick InGen by fulfilling Hoskins' desire for a field test and try to get Future Zach involved.

"Zach, hey, Zach."

The eldest Mitchell looked up, "Yeah?"

"Do you think we can pull this off?" Owen explained his crazy plan to him.

Zach looked uncertain, "I'm not sure, what makes you think that Hoskins will fall for it?"

Owen shrugged, "Worth a try, he's forever going on about field tests and weaponized dinosaurs. He also likes to brag about how awesome his InGen team is."

Gray yawned, "Maybe we should go through with it...Man, I'm tired..."

Owen smiled lightly, "Go to sleep, kid,"

A scratching noise alerted the humans and they turned around to see Selena digging a message into the earth.

_We could actually try this out, no doubt that man would put the other 10 raptors with us. By then, we'll just have to act and pretend._

The sleepy raptors heard everything and gave grunts of approval. Owen smiled lightly and rose to his feet, stretching.

_Brrrring, brrrring_

Owen whipped out his phone, and answered the call from Claire, "What news?"

 _"They finally decided on taking action, Hoskins_ wants _to do that field test, Masrani caved, what are we going to do?"_

Claire sounded a little desperate, she did not want what happened to her in the future happen again.

Owen smiled, once again, opportunity has presented itself to him and he was not going to waste it. Feigning a sigh of anger and exasperation, Owen said, "Fine, tell Hoskins that if we do this, we do this my way."

* * *

Zach was eating his dinner with gusto since he was pretty hungry. He was left alone in the base with a bunch of guards outside. Other than being threatened by a gun and Nathan's punch, he did not get any additional mistreatment.

Finishing his meal, Zach closed his eyes with a sigh, he'd been given a key by InGen so he could easily access the containment area instead of needing a guard to open the door for him every time. But beyond the room where he woke up in, he would be accompanied by a guard and that just really sucked.

Zach returned to the containment area and expected the usual hisses and low rumbles from the raptors but to his surprise, all of them were still.

And all were staring at him.

Zach blinked, and looked at Pearl who stared hard right back at him.

Suddenly, Hazel released a grunt and Zach decided to walk towards her.

He stroked her head, "Yes, Hazel, what do you want?"

Hazel's eyes flickered to Pearl who was the last one on the right, then back at the very-soon-to-be alpha.

Somehow understanding the message, Zach walked over to Pearl and looked at her curiously, "What's up?"

Pearl grunted and growled as she shifted in her restraints, Zach smiled wryly and worked off the head muzzle, allowing Pearl to stretch her jaw and head. The beta then waited expectantly for Zach to give some kind of command. But when the trainer did not do so, Pearl realized she had to provoke some kind of reaction out of him that causes him to think that she is misbehaving and then, when he issues a command, follow it.

So she leaned forward quickly and "tried" to "bite" Zach.

Zach hissed and leapt backwards, cursing as he went while the beta continued her attempts to "bite" him.

"Down, Pearl, that's enough!"

Pearl smiled inwardly and stopped, seemingly composing herself and waited expectantly for Zach's next command.

"You guys do _not_ bite the good guys, you wanna take a bite don't take it out at me or...!"

Pearl sent her sisters a sideways glance, "Ready? Let's do this!"

She bowed her head to show raptor submission, usually done when the alpha of a pack is defeated by a rival raptor. And Zach knew what that meant, he stoppered his bubbling anger and looked completely shocked and taken aback.

The was a flurry of motion as the other raptors followed suit and bowed their heads to Zach, shocking him further though Miranda seemed to do so reluctantly.

'Hmm, Miranda has Echo's temper, huh?'

Zach slowly approached Pearl again, "Are you acknowledging me as alpha?"

Pearl cocked her head to one side in that familiar gesture Blue does all the time: "Yes,"

Zach could not help the smile that split across his face: he did it.

* * *

_The 10 New Raptors - Pearl, Hazel, Miranda, Crystal, Alexis, Katelyn, Erica, Leslie, Stephanie and Tracy_

"Look at him, he's sooooo happy," Alexis grinned the best she could with her head muzzled.

"Humans are so weird..." Katelyn muttered as Erica and Leslie snickered at the look on Miranda's face.

Miranda was not happy about being locked up, she was not happy about being a _thing_. She was not happy about a lot of things. Heck, she hated the smile that bloomed on the human's face, ugh, stupid.

Crystal smiled slightly, "Relax, Mira, you'll get over it. Come to think of it, he's pretty nice."

"No, he's not, shut up."

"Whatever,"

The human came to them and freed their heads, stroking and petting them, much to Miranda's annoyance.

"Seriously, what's with you, sis? Why are you so mad?"

Miranda looked at Stephanie and shook her head, "You wouldn't understand,"

Stephanie stared at her older sister blankly, rolled her eyes and crooned at Zach's touch.

All of a sudden, the brown-shirt-human appeared and spoke to Zach. The raptors saw the anger, fear, nervousness and uncertainty flash across his face before he grudgingly answered the brown-shirt-human who left.

Hazel looked thoughtful, "Wonder what that brown-shirt-human said,"

"Who cares?"

"Zach looks pretty distressed, I'm picking up a lot of negative and fear vibes coming from him."

Everyone looked at Tracy who was sniffing, taking in the time traveler's scent.

Pearl inhaled sharply all of a sudden.

"What's wrong?"

"I just managed to decipher the humans' conversation! Brown-shirt-human is planning to take us out on a field test to chase down another dinosaur with a very strange name, Zach is afraid for some reason. This is it, sisters, the turning point I feared."

Miranda scowled, "Brown-shirt-human will die soon enough, I'll kill him!"

"Stop, Miranda, enough is enough. We must focus! This is very important, there may be chances to kill brown-shirt-human later, just focus on the mission!"

Miranda glared at Hazel, "Sure, second-in-command,"

Hazel deadpanned and returned her attention to the situation at hand as more humans streamed inside.

It was time to choose, InGen, or Jurassic World?


	15. A Rescue Mission, A Decision, An Outcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History repeats itself...with a twist!

_At the fixed raptor containment area..._

Blue and her sisters stood silently in their restraints as InGen personnel strapped the red blinking cameras on their heads, just like in Blue's dream. They waited with boredom for the humans to begin, all the while worrying about their other trainer.

"Owen! So glad to see you that you've decided to do this!"

Said man just shot Hoskins a cold look, "Like I said, we're doing this my way, so don't even think about interfering, they're not going to listen to you."

Hoskins chuckled and barked a few more orders at his men while Owen made his way to Claire who had a kind of gleam in her eye.

"What? I know that look, you're up to something."

Claire smiled bigger and beckoned Owen to follow her, she led him further from the others and said, "Masrani is _very_ interested to see how this plays out. He says that if your raptors and the new ones could stay in control and rescue Wade while 'stopping' Selena, he would definitely do all that he can to bring InGen's case up to court. Jurassic World will be free of their craziness."

"So, he's basically on our side,"

Claire nodded and Owen grinned evilly, "This is gonna be fun,"

* * *

_InGen's base..._

"You will rejoin the rest at the raptor pen, no funny tricks, alright? Stop the Indominus, make sure the raptors behave, and we'll have no problems with each other,"

Zach glared at Nathan with suppressed rage, _"Damn jerk_ _! Like_ you're _superior..."_

Pearl, who was walking behind the newly chosen alpha, nudged his hand cautiously: a warning. Getting the idea, Zach swallowed his anger and tried to remember the lessons from the future.

_"Alright, if anyone pisses you off, keep calm, no matter what. Otherwise you'd probably blow your cover in whatever you're planning or something... Anyways, keep a smooth, blank face. That way, no one would suspect you."_

_"Marines do that?"_

_Owen chuckled, "It happens when you're meeting with some higher-ups who just loves riling you up or hates you for no reason, gives the perfect excuse for punishment or insubordination, whichever."_

_"You must have had it hard during your marine days,"_

_"Yup, take it from me,"_

Zach allowed himself a small smile and walked on with his little gang.

When they finally arrived at the pen, Zach wanted to run over and hug Owen, Barry, his aunt, and the four sisters. But for the sake of keeping up appearances, he stilled his urges and walked on normally. Though Claire, Owen and Barry have caught his eye and all were sending him sympathetic looks to which he returned with a small smile.

"Alright! Everything's primed and ready, Wade, you done?"

Zach nodded and Hoskins clapped his hands together, "Let's roll!"

InGen soldiers whooped and got on their respective vehicles while Claire and Masrani stayed behind. Owen and Barry got on their bikes, which left Zach standing there, feeling a little...left out. But Zach had a back up plan: ride on the raptors.

He looked at Hazel meaningfully who sank down on her knees, allowing Zach to climb on, surprising everyone in the area. Owen had to fight off the smile creeping on his face as he fixed his gaze straight forward, revving up his bike.

"All set! GO!"

Owen shouted and he clicked the button that would release the raptors from their containment cages and shot along with his pack, Barry close behind.

Zach hung on tight to Pearl as his pack also rushed forward, intent on finding Selena. Zach kept looking at Owen, wondering what the plan was. He knew that there was some kind of catch to this, but he did not know what, and he was intent on finding out what it was.

* * *

_Indominus Rex and Mitchell Brothers - Selena, Zach and Gray_

Selena waited patiently with the brothers close to her, she could pick up faint noises of human vehicles driving nearer and fought with her instincts to keep the bloodlust down, only with the brothers near her was she able to do so.

Gray was getting whatever sleep he could since he was dead tired, but the same could not be said for Past Zach, he was on high alert and was waiting for his future self to show up since he really wanted to know what he looked like.

The sounds got nearer and nearer and Zach quickly woke up his brother. They climbed onto Selena's back and Selena boosted them up to the highest tree bough she could reach. This was to keep the brothers from getting involved and hurt in the oncoming conflict. The brothers climbed slightly higher since they did not want to be noticed.

Selena gave the boys a wink before padding forward silently and activating her camouflage, waiting for the humans to come. She could already taste the smell of nervousness (from the humans) and the smell of anxiousness along with excitement (from the raptors) in the air. Selena bared her teeth in a feral invisible grin: Hoskins' end is near, along with his stupid InGen.

"Think they smell anything?"

Selena rolled her eyes, and advanced slowly, waiting for the raptors to freeze up as planned.

* * *

Owen fixed his gaze ahead, rifle taut in his grasp, he hoped that Charlie will survive this time round, it would break his heart if she died in the same explosion as before.

Barry shifted slightly as the raptors continued to sniff at the air, "Do you think she will show?"

Owen nodded, "All part of the plan, she will, don't worry,"

The raptors froze and Selena emerged from the thickets, every human in the area held their breath, waiting for the Indominus's reaction.

The dinosaurs began 'communicating' when in reality they are discussing their next move.

_"Should we tell Zach of the plan?"_

_"Yes, while you're at it, tell the newbies,"_

_"Said newbies can hear you, you know,"_

Selena swung her head to look at Pearl and her pack, Zach's eyes were fixed on her.

_"Alright,"_

With that, the raptors began planning their next move. Owen was watching Selena's claws since she was actually signing to him of what is going on. Zach looked at Owen quickly then back at Selena, he caught snippets of the plan from watching the sign language (which he noticed) but he was still pretty much out of the loop.

Owen, who was next to Zach now, nudged him and murmured, "Selena will tell you later," to which Zach responded with a minuscule nod of his head.

Then the dinosaurs stopped 'communicating', 'betrayed' the humans and ran off with Selena, taking Zach with them since he was still on top of Pearl.

With that, all hell broke loose.

* * *

Zach yelped as he desperately tried to regain his hold on Pearl's neck unless he wanted to fall off. "What the hell?!"

Leslie growled at him in exasperation but reminded herself that the alpha does not do dino speak and carried on running. The team of raptors rushed deep into the dark forest and finally slowed down in a clearing that was covered by draping vines.

Selena got the brothers down from their perch on the branch and Zach froze up.

A disheveled Gray was looking back at him with a blank, yet curious expression.

Zach stepped forward in a trance-like state, disbelief colouring his features, arm stretched out, desperately needing to make sure what he saw before him was not an illusion.

The Zach of this timeline watched his older self with curiosity, the pain that was in his eyes, the shock and disbelief... Yep, he needed to start rethinking his lifestyle before he experiences the same loss as his older self. 'I really am stupid...aren't I?'

Past Zach yelped when his older self yanked Gray into his arms and broke down into sobs. 'Damn...' Past Zach averted his gaze and backed up a bit to give his older self some space.

Gray awkwardly stood there in Future Zach's arms, not knowing how to react. But he eventually raised his arms and hugged his brother of the future, patting his back to comfort him.

"I-I'm—so—s-so-sorry—! G-gray, I'm—such an—ass..."

The dinosaurs looked at each other with grins on their faces: Mission Get-Zach-to-Meet-Gray — complete.

Gray smiled warmly down at Zach, whose face was buried in his shirt, oh, how much he must have been hurting inside...

"C'mon, bro, you gotta pull yourself together."

Zach lifted his head, revealing his messed up face, "I'm so glad to see you here..."

Past Zach coughed, "Hate to interrupt this much needed moment, but we have a plan to carry out, so we can save this moment for later."

Future Zach nodded, wiping his eyes, "You're right, I guess we should move on... Oh, call me by my alias, Wade, it would be much easier to tell which Zach is which then."

Past Zach nodded, and grinned, time to fill Wade in on the whole plan.

* * *

Owen and Barry were hiding in a tree when Owen's phone rang.

"Zach?"

_"It's Wade for now, so we can tell each other apart. Are you sure you want Hoskins dead?"_

"Why not? Forgive me, Wade, but this guy has been causing too much trouble—"

_"I got a better idea, why don't we let all that happened in the future 'happen' again? That way, we can catch the whole lot of them in the act of taking away half the stuff in the lab and get his confession on the truth of Selena's creation with Masrani there. With Delta in front of him, he won't dare try anything."_

Barry, who had been listening in, whispered, "That is f***ing brilliant!"

Owen felt a huge grin spread across his face and said, "I swear Wade, you sound like a marine tactician."

_"*laughs* I learned all that from you, actually."_

Owen only grinned and uttered a goodbye before hanging up. Turning to Barry, he told him to get back to Claire and Masrani and fill them in, to which Barry happily complied.

* * *

The plan went pretty well, InGen and all the scientists were caught red-handed and Masrani fired them all on the spot, rage darkening his facial features.

Every security division related to InGen were all fired, except ACU who were pretty much kept out of the loop since Hoskins did not see them important enough to include in with the plan. That was enough to piss off Hamada and side with Masrani almost immediately, and ACU are the ones who oversaw their detainment.

All of them were locked in their own base and a thorough search was conducted on the Innovation Center and the InGen base.

The raptors were back in their containment area with Miranda and several others being treated since during the 'scuffle', InGen had shot them.

Owen gazed at the raptor pen and smiled, "Looks like this pen will have to get bigger to accommodate the other 10,"

Claire smiled, "Mr Masrani will see to it," She looked back into her white car, where her nephews were all snoozing in the backseats, Wade's arm wrapped securely around Gray.

"I guess Wade's done what he did, almost no death occurred this time, only minor injuries..."

"The press will be buzzing with news of InGen..."

The ex couple began to speak of their future, the dinosaurs and even Wade. They wondered if Zach wanted to go home, now that his mission is complete.

But all these questions can be saved for the next day, so much has happened and everyone was dead tired. So, Owen and Claire both drove themselves home and let Barry and the others take care of the raptors.

* * *


	16. To Leave or To Stay?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dust settles, Zach is faced with another choice.

Future Zach woke up and saw an unfamiliar ceiling that immediately told him that he was not in his room. He then remembered that Claire drove them back to her apartment since they fell asleep in her car. As yesterday's events came rushing back to him, Zach flipped around quickly and looked for Gray, sighing in relief when he saw him snuggled up to his past self.

Zach gently eased himself off the bed and went into the living room where Claire was stirring coffee.

"Morning, aunt Claire,"

Claire smiled at her future nephew in greeting as he sat down in front of her, "So, now that you've done what you intended to do, will you go back to your timeline?"

"I guess, but I'm not sure,"

Claire was confused, "Wouldn't your actions affect the future? Now that Gray is here, shouldn't he also appear in your timeline?"

"No, this timeline is actually a parallel universe and not my past, that was as much as Lowery could manage to program into the time machine. This...I suppose is to make me feel better in a way,"

"Oh," Claire was stunned, all that hard work for nothing? If Zach went home, he would have to deal with the emptiness of his life without Gray once again. "What will you do?"

"I don't know, I guess I'll just go back to the way life was for me,"

"You can't possibly do that now that you've seen Gray here, don't you want to stay?"

"Wouldn't that be confusing? Like, there are two Zachs at once, if I was my past self, I'd find this weird and creepy."

Claire drank her coffee, deep in thought, she wanted to tell Zach to change his name but knew it would be too harsh on him and she would be literally telling him to change his identity, something Claire was sure Zach could never accept. So, she remained silent.

After a while, Zach took his leave and returned to his apartment to continue the day and possibly work though Masrani allowed everyone a break due to all the crap that has happened.

* * *

_Indominus Rex - Selena_

Selena sighed as she shifted in her slightly unkempt nest back in her containment area, which has been fixed pretty quickly. Once again, she was locked in and she was beginning to feel bored.

She seriously needed some company before she goes crazy like her future self.

'Speaking of the future, I wonder how's Zach doing?'

Selena rose to her feet and trudged over to the gate and tapped on it with her claw. The gate opened enough for a human to slip through and closed slightly, narrowing the gap just in case Selena went bonkers.

Selena signed to the human of her request and desire and he had to ask for permission from Masrani. When the CEO gave the okay, the gate pulled back and Selena was free.

She lazily stomped her way through the park since it was closed down for the moment and there were no tourists except for the workers so it was okay for her to walk out freely.

Selena's scales glinted in the morning sunlight as she made her way to the raptor pen. She took in the human world with interest as she made the trip and arrived to see Zach absentmindedly stroke the heads of the new raptors as they snoozed around him. Owen was dozing off near his girls, the day was still pretty much early after all.

Miranda had a bandage wound around her head and the other raptors had a small patch of gauze here and there.

Selena released a low croon, alerting the two humans to her presence. The raptors did not move despite sensing her since they were still exhausted from the excitement and adrenaline rush before.

"Hey,"

Zach simply gave a nod to the hybrid unlike Owen who spoke.

Hmm, it seemed Zach had a lot on his mind, Selena wondered what he was thinking.

Getting the feeling that Selena wanted to say something, Zach just tossed out his phone and opened a document app and placed it in front of the hybrid.

Selena grinned as she began to tap out her message lightly on the phone: yep, she knew how to use human devices to an extent because Zach is a nice guy that way.

She gently pushed the communication device back to Zach, mindful of how fragile it is compared to her large size.

Zach gazed at her message, smiled slightly and typed back.

They did this with Owen watching with amazement, he did not think that Selena would be this intelligent after all.

The conversation was pretty much about Selena asking Zach of how is he doing and his decision to stay or leave. Zach himself replied that he was not sure and was still raging a battle in his mind for an answer.

_"Take your time, hang out with your brothers, relax,"_

Zach smiled faintly and took his phone back and cleared the text, replacing his phone in his pocket.

A familiar clicking noise made its way into Selena's ears and everyone looked up to see Claire who had a large smile on her face.

"What's the occasion?"

Claire grinned at her ex, "Masrani is going to build a new paddock out of the restricted area for Selena, isn't that great?"

Zach blinked and Owen raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

Claire rolled her eyes, "Selena's going to be one of the attractions the moment Jurassic World reopens, should give her a good insight of human life and activity."

Zach smiled wryly, "Cool, she'll have lots of fun scaring the others,"

Selena released her dino laugh and nuzzled her trainer's head.

"Where is Gray and the...other Zach?"

Selena gazed at her trainer fondly and knew he wanted to have more brotherly moments with Gray. Claire replied, "Out by the lagoon, don't worry, the Mosasaur won't eat them," she joked.

Zach rolled his eyes and patted Pearl's and Miranda's head before leaving the paddock.

* * *

_Gray Mitchell_

Gray was silently staring at the waters of the lagoon while his brother of this timeline texted his parents. Gray wondered if Wade wanted to go home or stay, he did not know why — but he wanted him to stay. Footsteps alerted both brothers to the presence of someone else and both looked up to see who it was.

Gray smiled hugely and rushed to Wade and hugged him tightly. Wade smiled and hugged back, no words needed to be said of how much he loves Gray.

The youngest Mitchell looked up at his future brother, "Are you gonna go back?"

Wade's smile faded, "I don't know, I haven't made the decision,"

Zach blinked, "Wow, I won't know what to do if there are two Zachs hanging around,"

"Exactly, I'd freak, don't you think?"

Gray looked at Wade, "So, if you were to make a decision now, would you leave or stay?"

Wade hesitated, "I...I think...I would..."

"..."

Gray said nothing as Wade's sentence faded away into nothing, it was clear that he was still struggling with the issue.

"I...really want you to...stay,"

Zach looked surprised, Wade stared blankly at him, "Why?"

"Umm, I figured we should spend time together, before I leave Jurassic World that is, you could probably even stay with us! And all the bonds you've created, do you think you could live without the raptors?"

That sent Wade into deep thought, "I...I have to think about it,"

Gray smiled, "Don't take long... I'm not forcing you to stay though,"

Wade smiled distractedly back and left for his apartment, he needed time alone.

To think.

* * *

Zach laid on his bed, thinking and thinking, especially about what Gray said to him earlier.

He was right, Zach would not be able to live without the other raptors. Hell, he was already alpha, and has bonded with Owen's pack, there is no way he would be able to live without that connection.

Zach sighed and reached for the bag he brought with him from the future and searched for a book, wanting to read to clear his mind. He blinked and pulled out a device he never put in his bag, and realized that there was a note taped to it.

_Hey, if you find this, it means that you've succeeded in saving your brother and fulfilling what you promised Owen and Claire. This is a time communicator, I built it the same time I built the time machine, call us with it so we can take you home. We probably miss you like crazy by then. Anyway, this thing pretty much works like a cell phone, have fun trying it out._

_-Lowery_

Zach smiled and examined the device, it did look like a cell phone, except it was big, bulkier than a walkie-talkie and had a sizable screen with the usual buttons and a few extra buttons that Zach noticed.

He began to test it, to figure out how to use it and when he finally did, he called Lowery.

"Dude, why am I looking at your ear?"

Zach blinked and pulled the phone back, the screen showed Lowery's face with two others. "It has a built-in webcam so you don't have to answer it like a regular phone dude,"

Zach looked sheepish, "Heh, didn't figure that one out."

"So, I take it my girls are okay?"

The time traveler smiled at the ex-marine, "Even better, the pack has grown," and Zach recounted the whole adventure to the three who were listening with rapt attention.

"Whoa, nice one,"

"How did that happen?"

"So, are you ready to come back?"

Zach bit his lip, "That's my current issue: I don't know,"

Lowery sighed, "Why must you be such a genius, Owen?"

Owen shrugged, "I'm not, I just thought he might wanna stay because of Gray..."

Claire sighed and looked at her nephew, "It completely up to you, Zach,"

Zach hesitated and ran his adventure through his head one more time, Gray was right, he cannot live without his pack that he has grown fond of.

"I guess...I won't be coming back, I've got a life here now, if I go back, I'd probably be signing my own sentence of boredom..."

Owen laughed and smirked at the tech-genius, "You owe me, big time!"

Lowery just groaned while Claire snickered, "Men,"

Zach gaped at the trio, "Hold it, you had a bet on whether or not I would return?"

Claire rolled her eyes, "Obviously, Lowery's going broke,"

Zach laughed with Owen after hearing that, he glanced around the sparse apartment and said, "Maybe I'm coming back to get some stuff, I'm kinda living in a cell right now..."

"Alright, just hit the green button in the middle of the keypad and you'll travel _forward_ in time. See you soon,"

Zach smiled at the screen that went blank, "Yeah...see you real soon,"

He grabbed his bag and hit the green button, there was a bright flash of light and he was gone: back to the future of a parallel universe.


	17. Goodbye, See You Again

With a bright flash of light, Zach appeared in the future with his bag and time cell in hand. Stepping out of the machine, he was greeted by Owen and Lowery whereas Claire hugged him. They immediately left the basement of Lowery's house and hit a coffee shop.

There, over their drinks, they began to talk about Zach's adventure in more detailed way. That is when Claire's expression changed into one of nervousness and worry, drawing the attention of the others, "Aunt Claire? What's wrong?"

"I'm just wondering how I'm going to break this to your parents..."

"Crap,"

Owen and Lowery laughed out loud, causing Zach to snap at them, "Yeah, keep laughing! That's not FUNNY!"

Claire grunted and kicked her former workmates under the table, causing them to yelp and Zach to smirk.

"Sheesh,"

Lowery leaned down to rub his leg as he cast Claire a look, "I guess you should start from the beginning, it's always a good place to start."

Zach released a snort, "Yeah, good place to start: Hey, mom, dad, because Gray died, we cooked up a time traveling plan to save him. Then I came back to say goodbye because I made friends with 15 dinosaurs. Yep, a _very_ good place to start."

Lowery sweat dropped, "Not that way, just break it to them gently. Gosh, honestly..."

"How long has it been?"

Owen hummed, "Approximately four months...time flows differently there I guess."

Zach sighed, "Did my parents call?"

Claire smiled a strained smile, "Yeah, we had to cook up a lot of lies to cover your absence but I don't think they believed the rest after a month and a half has passed."

"Great,"

Claire's phone rang right after Zach's comment and the latter cringed while the former sighed and answered, "Karen,"

 _"Claire, no more lies,_ where _is he?"_

"Right here, he's back,"

_"Could you pass the phone to him, please?"_

Zach took his aunt's phone with nervousness, man, how long has it been since his mother used that tone of voice with him? "Hi, mom,"

 _"Zachary Mitchell, do you have any idea how worried your dad and I are? No more games, out with the truth,_ now _."_

"Well, you guys know how messed up I was ever since...Gray...y'know,"

There was a long pause as both sides remained silent, when Karen said nothing, Zach took it as his cue to continue, "So, aunt Claire, Lowery and Owen decided to send me to a completely parallel universe and save Gray's life before he gets...eaten, yeah."

There was more silence until: _"Come home,_ now _."_ and the line went dead, leaving a very ominous silence behind.

Zach sent his aunt a pleading look, "I'm screwed, aren't I?"

Said person gave her nephew a sympathetic look, "We all are,"

The time traveler comically allowed his head to smack into the table.

* * *

Upon reaching home, Zach got embraced by his parents and they sat down with the others and began the story anew, this time with Claire narrating. After that, Scott suggested that everyone hang out for the last time with Zach since he was going to return to the past.

So, they headed off to wherever they wanted to spend the day off at and enjoyed themselves immensely. They did everything: eat, catch a movie, shop for some stuff — basically what a bunch of teenagers would do on outings with their friends or families. Time passed pretty quickly and soon the sun began to set, throwing its soft orange glow over the entire city.

Everyone agreed to meet at Lowery's basement for the final goodbye while the Mitchell family headed home to help Zach pack whatever he needed.

Zach grabbed every book he had, his music CDs and his clothes, stuffed them into bags and cast his comfy room one last time before smiling and headed downstairs. On the way there, he took a short detour to Gray's room and gave the interior a cursory glance before moving downstairs. There, Karen helped him arrange his things and handed him a bag of food as a kind of parting gift much to Zach's amusement.

Karen and Scott drove their son to Lowery's house in their car, exchanging words as they went. They talked about a lot of things, the old days and such. It brought a sense of nostalgia to Zach as he gazed at the sun.

When they arrived at the basement, Owen, Lowery and Claire were all waiting with huge smiles on their faces, time machine prepped and ready. Karen began to fuss about her son and Zach resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said, "Mom, I'm not five," His father snorted, "Enjoy the love while you can, son," Zach only smiled and let his mom fuss as she wanted.

After a teary goodbye from Karen and a warm hug from both Owen and his dad, Zach stepped into the time machine once more and faced his family of the future.

"Goodbye,"

"Have fun with the raptors,"

"Take care of yourself, alright?"

Zach smiled at every reminder and nodded. Then Lowery, whose hand was on the activation button, said, "Hey, keep that time comm with ya, you never know when you might come back to see us."

Zach grinned, "I will,"

"And if that thing ever dies, just get a new battery."

"Noted,"

One button push later, Zach was on his way back to his pack, brother and friends.

* * *

Zach put down his stuff in his room and tore down the apartment to find Gray and the others. When he did, everyone was surprised to find him so breathless.

"Dude, you look like as if you've just run around the whole island!"

Zach grinned at his past self, "I took a detour back to the future to get my stuff,"

Gray's eyes lit up in excitement, "Does that mean you're staying with us?!"

Zach smiled, "Yeah," and Owen smirked at Barry who snorted and handed over some money, causing Claire to sigh and Gray to snicker.

Zach sweat dropped and sighed, "Anyways, I'm going to be changing my name to Wade Reilly here to avoid confusion,"

Everyone agreed that it was a good choice and Claire brought up a problem Zach—now Wade, had not thought of, "Where are you going to live? You can't live on the island forever,"

Gray smiled hugely, "He could live with us, we'll explain to mom and dad,"

"Hmm, alright,"

The rest of the day was spent making plans and arranging Wade's future.


	18. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach gets his happy ending :)

The sun shone brightly down on Isla Nublar which was bustling with visitors from all over the world. Everyone was excited to see beings thought extinct alive and moving. The kids were shouting in glee while the adults smiled and enjoyed themselves.

Jurassic World is still open, not closed: unlike its predecessor, Jurassic Park.

Near the T-Rex Kingdom, a newly built paddock housed a special hybrid named the Indominus Rex. There were many people peering into the glass, trying to spot the new attraction, especially the kids.

"Where is it?"

"You don't think it's sleeping somewhere?"

The announcer for the hybrid dinosaur chided the kids, "Now, now, she's not an 'it', she is a very intelligent dinosaur and we have gleaned from her that she does not like to be addressed as an object."

The kids looked embarrassed as the parents smiled and shook their heads in amusement, "Just give it a few more seconds, folks, anytime now..."

And Selena appeared right in front of the observation glass, scaring the kids and shocking the adults, because she did so with her jaws hanging open in a terrifying roar.

Everyone scrambled back in fear and Selena quickly snapped her jaws shut. She put her one of her eye in full view of the glass and blinked nice and slow, letting everyone see what her eye structure is like.

"It's like she has an extra eyelid!"

The babble of the children went up again and Selena had to resist showing a toothy smile. The announcer then began to explain her camouflage ability and Selena shifted, allowing her body to come into view instead.

She looked at the crowd, and spied a nice looking floral bracelet around a girl's wrist, Selena immediately had her scales change colour to match the pattern and shape of the bracelet.

The girl noticed the similarity and exclaimed, "She's copying my bracelet's design onto her scales!" The crowd released exclamations of wonder and delight and soon, they were requesting the hybrid dinosaur to show them more spectacular imitations.

Selena smiled to herself, 'Maybe not all humans are bad after all...' and she carried on her job of entertaining the race of her creators.

* * *

_The Raptor Pen_

Wade hummed to himself as he dealt with the raptors' manure that accumulated over the past two weeks. He enjoyed his work immensely and had bonded with his pack to the extent he could actually do raptor speak. That caused everyone to call him The Dino Translator since he could interpret dinosaur language easily and Mr Masrani admired him greatly for this.

Owen who was cleaning out the head muzzles looked up from his work and said, "Hey, I heard that the kids are coming over again today,"

"Are they?"

"Mm-hmm,"

"Good, hey, Owen, can you handle the rest of the pen? I'm going to see Selena,"

"Uh-huh,"

With that, Wade left the pen and trekked over to his new bike which Owen had gotten him as a birthday present a while ago. He kicked started the bike and drove all the way to the Indominus Paddock, where he parked his bike by the workers' break room and jogged into the building where some maintenance crew were cleaning up from the last show.

Greetings exchanged with the crew, Wade pulled open a hidden latch on the observation glass and called out for his friend who was most likely having lunch by then.

Sure enough, the hybrid lumbered over with her lunch still half dangling out of her jaws.

"Eww, Selena, finish your meal, please."

The Indominus gave her trainer a lopsided grin and turned away and finished up her meal, cleaned herself before turning to face Wade again.

"The kids are coming over, just thought you should know. How are the shows going?"

 _Pretty fun, if you ask me. I just_ love _freaking them out with my entrance move!_

Wade deadpanned, "Sure you do, roaring at people is kinda...your specialty...yeah..."

Selena laughed and nuzzled Wade, _You'd better get going, I think Claire's gonna call you or something,_

Wade raised an eyebrow and Selena said, _Call it my sixth sense, alright? Trust me,_

Right after that, Wade's phone rang and he picked up, "Claire? Oh, yeah, yeah sure. Really?! Right, on my way!"

Wade hung up and grinned, "Let's party tonight," Selena nodded and nudged her trainer to go on. Wade immediately left the paddock, hopped on his bike and drove to the monorail station.

* * *

_Monorail Station_

Gray got down excitedly from the train as Zach lazily followed behind, "Again, Gray? He's not going anywhere..."

"I know! I'm just excited to see him!"

"Yeah, act your age, Gray, you're not eleven anymore,"

"Shut up,"

Zach chuckled at his brother who was now fourteen, as he sprinted down the steps to the park and saw a familiar figure standing there casually, waiting.

"Wade!"

"Hey there!"

Zach grinned as he strolled up to his future self, "How's it going?"

"Same as usual, it's good to see you guys again! Selena can't wait, how's mom and dad?"

"Fine, you can come over again, like, say, after the next couple months. Let's go see our aunt first, if she's available, that is,"

Wade snorted, "She's not going to repeat her previous mistake, she cleared her schedule just for you guys."

Gray fist pumped in happiness, causing Zach to nudge Wade and say, "I swear, it's like he's still eleven..."

"He's adorable that way,"

Zach and Wade laughed as they made their way to Wade's bike with Gray pouting since he heard what his brothers said: "Guuuuuyyyysssss!"

_Office..._

Claire was stacking up the rest of her files when a knock sounded on her door, "Come in,"

"Hey, aunt Claire,"

Claire smiled and hugged her nephews except for Wade since he smelled like raptor dung and was stained with sweat, not that Wade minded. They sat down and began to chat, catching up on things they have not when Gray asked curiously of the fate of InGen.

"Disbanded, all of them are in jail. Their sentences are pretty long, but it depends on what they've done. I know that Hoskins and most of the scientists got at least 20 years each."

Zach winced at Claire's answer, "Ouch,"

Claire rolled her eyes, "They deserved it. Thanks to Mr Masrani's timing, the park was given full pardon...It would've broke the CEO's heart if Jurassic World had to shut down too..."

Then Wade spoke up, "Hey, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to bring Gray over to my...place. I'm pretty sure that _they_ would like to see him too."

Claire laughed, "No sweat! You'd have to ask Karen though,"

Gray grinned, "Do you think they'll be shocked that I'm fourteen?"

Wade and Zach snorted, "Maybe, maybe not,"

Gray glared at his brothers, "Stop teasing!"

"Can't help it, little bro!"

Claire then suggested to the group to not keep Selena waiting and they headed down towards Selena's paddock.

Wade had this huge smile on his face: everything was alright, just the way it should be.


End file.
